Death of Lluís Maria de Puig
Strasbourg, 13.12.2012 - The Chairman of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe, Stefan Oeter, expresses his profound sadness at the death of Lluís Maria de Puig who was one of the authors of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
De Puig, a Catalan historian, politician and President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe between 2008 and 2010, was a member of the working group of the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe which drew up the first draft of the Charter between 1984 and 1987.
Only one day before he unexpectedly passed away, de Puig gave an interview to the Charter Secretariat on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Charter. Passionate as usual, de Puig emphasized that the impact of the Charter has by far exceeded the modest expectations of its drafters. Drawing on his personal experience as a Catalan, de Puig recalled having been skeptical that Catalan would be used everywhere in public life, in the media, administration or justice, “but after progress was first made, the contribution of the charter has in fact shown to be extraordinary”.
