Assessing language policy. The treatment of Russian in Estonia and Spanish in Catalonia

Estonia and Catalonia share a similar (post-totalitarian) linguistic situation but show two different political responses to it, especially in their treatment of Russian and Spanish. In officially monolingual Estonia, Russian is a «foreign» language with limited linguistic facilities (including Russian-medium schools); in Catalonia, Spanish is a (co)official language with extensive linguistic rights (excluding Spanish-medium schools). This paper identifies a number of areas in which Estonian language policies have been controversial with respect to the compliance with the standards set forth by the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. In every instance, the Estonian reaction to international criticism has been to adopt an option that was already operative in Catalonia. Drawing on this, the paper claims that Catalonia might be a model for Estonia (not the other way around) and that Estonia might end up by turning into a bilingual polity of the Catalan kind.