The NPLD recently hosted its annual General Assembly meeting in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. All members of the NPLD were invited to the annual meeting, which looked back at the last 12 months' achievements and activities, as well as planning ahead for the coming year.

The meeting was kindly hosted by one of the NPLD's founding members, Linguamón, Casa de les Llengües (House of Languages).  Linguamón is a body set up by the Government of Catalonia with the aim of promoting the world’s languages as a: 

• vehicle for communication, civilisation and dialogue 
• source of personal development, human creativity and heritage of mankind  
• right of individuals and of linguistic communities. 

On Monday, members of the NPLD were given a presentation by the Director of Linguamón, Mr Antoni Mir, on their future plans to build a new headquarters for the organisation. The new building, which will be situated in the Can Ricart area of Barcelona, is envisaged to be ready for 2010. The facility will to be used for social and cultural purposes and will include a space of 7,000 m2 for exhibitions and language-related services geared towards people from all walks of life, as well as for innovative initiatives and resources for experts on linguistic diversity and multilingual communication technologies. For images of the proposed building, click here.

 Photo: Rubén Moreno
On Tuesday, the NPLD delegates were kindly invited to attend a reception at the Palau de Generalitat by Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira, vice-president of the Government of Catalonia and chairman of the Governing Board of Linguamón-House of Languages. In his speech, he underlined the importance of multilingualism to a culturally diverse society and the important work being carried out by the NPLD in further the cause of linguistic diversity. The speech is available by clicking on the link above.