Getting closer: the Basque Country and Basques living abroad

Wiew to intensifying social, cultural and economic links between the Basque Country and Basque groups and centres abroad (euskal etxeak), on May 27, 1994, the Basque Parliament passed a law that covers and places this framework of action in a proper institutional context.

The "Law Governing Relations with Basque Groups and Centres Outside the Basque Autonomous Community" aims to strengthen such organisations to benefit their members, their internal unity and the efficiency of their joint associational actions. It is also designed to preserve and reinforce the links these groups maintain with the Basque Country, increase awareness of life in the Basque Country through cultural and economic promotions and to encourage relations with their countries of adoption. Besides these general objectives, the Law is designed to help and protect Basques resident outside the Basque Autonomous Community, within the legal and budgetary framework.

In this context, the centres are considered a preferential focus for relations between the Basque authorities and members of these groups resident abroad. So the Basque public authorities aim, as far as it is in their power to do so, to ensure that groups like these have access to public information; that they take part in the varied social, cultural and economic panorama of the Basque Country; that they have Basque language classes; and that they participate in programmes, missions and delegations organised by Basque institutions in the countries or areas where they live.

The text of the Law actually specifies a series of rights and services available to the Centres and their members. So anyone who returns to the Basque Country will have access to healthcare assistance, will be entitled to apply for public housing or take advantage of the support measures available for making the journey, once they have provided evidence of their connections.

To ensure the Law is correctly applied, a consultant body, the Advisory Council for Relations with Basque Groups was created. The Council favours analysis and communication between the different administrative levels in the Autonomous Community responsible for carrying out the law. The Law also contemplates a Congress of Basque Groups Abroad, to be held once every four years, designed to promote encounters and cooperation between Basque groups and the authorities in the Basque Country.