MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cervantes Institute opening in Gibraltar next December “inevitably” political

Carmen Caffarel, director of the Cervantes Institute to promote Spanish language and culture

Spain’s Instituto Cervantes director Carmen Caffarel has declared that the opening of a branch of the prestigious academic institute in Britain’s Overseas Territory Gibraltar, is “inevitably” due to political reasons, as a consequence of the Cordoba Agreements achieved by the Tripartite Forum (UK, Spain and Gibraltar).

Ms Caffarel said the Instituto Cervantes in Gibraltar will be officially inaugurated in early December and commence academic activities in February. However she said it was still not known who will be representing the Spanish Government at the opening ceremony.

“As part of these (Cordoba) agreements, Spain had offered the possibility of setting up the Institute in Gibraltar so that the Spanish language spoken in the OT could be perfected” said Ms Caffarel.

She added that the language was not spoken well in Gibraltar and that the Cervantes Institute would be teaching Spanish for business and legal practitioners together with courses for the formation of Spanish teachers for children.

Ms Caffarel said the changes at the helm of the Spanish Foreign Ministry would not affect the plans for the Gibraltar institute. The Cervantes Institute (more or less equivalent to the British Council) will have a budget of around 103 million Euros for next year, a reduction of 0.6% in relation to 2010.