Barcelona City Council has received a letter from the US Embassy in Spain urging them not to apply diversity policies at a language learning programme for young people run by a local library if they don’t want to have funding withdrawn.
Donald Trump’s anti-DEI policies have now reached Barcelona, more specifically a public library in the Catalan capital that since 2016 has been running a project called American Space Barcelona.
This scheme promotes cultural exchanges between Barcelona and the United States and has hosted some 2,000 activities with more than 77,000 attendees.
The American Space Barcelona (ASB) programme takes place at the Ignasi Iglésias-Can Fabra library in Barcelona’s Sant Andreu district, and it is financed in part with funds from the US government.
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According to Barcelona City Council’s website, the ASB is aimed at “children, young people and the general public, as well as schools (primary and secondary), students and teachers” and is “designed for learning English informally in a fun, collaborative environment”.
A few weeks ago, Barcelona authorities received a letter from the US Embassy in Madrid relating to this programme, demanding the implementation of Executive Order 14173, officially named “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”, which as its name indicates seeks to “end” “illegal discrimination and restore merit-based opportunities.”
Under the presidency of Donald Trump, US federal law now requires that no funds be used for initiatives or programmes that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, also known as DEI.
The letter specifically addressed compliance with the order in the American Space Barcelona programme, which includes language courses and language exchange partnerships throughout the school year.
City council sources have told the Spanish press that they will not comply with the US’s demands as they contravene the values and principles of inclusion, the promotion of gender equality, and diversity of Spain and the EU, adding that the US’s anti-DEI policies are not applicable outside of their country.
The news comes just weeks after the US embassy in Spain also demanded that its Spanish suppliers prove they don’t have diversity and inclusion policies at their companies.
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Several Spanish ministers voiced their opposition to the US’s anti-diversity demands, including Spain’s Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz, who responded by saying that: “In Spain, it’s Spanish men and women who are in charge”.
READ MORE: ‘Not one step back’ – Spain responds to Trump’s anti-diversity demands
Barcelona City Council maintains that it will continue to seek collaborative agreements and explore avenues for relationships with cities, institutions, and public entities in the United States, but that these will actively promote and defend inclusion, diversity, and equity.
According to Barcelona authorities, these principles are upheld by the city’s 40 municipal libraries, considered safe community spaces and which year after year receive very high scores from residents in municipal surveys.
On February 20th, the United States Embassy in Madrid publicly confirmed its anti-diversity demands.
“The US Embassy in Spain, like all our embassies around the world, is informing our local suppliers of products and services about the new framework based on the recent executive orders signed by President Trump,” explained a spokesperson for the US diplomatic office in Spain.
“We want to ensure that our contracts comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws and that suppliers do not operate programmes promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion that violate existing federal laws,” he added.
