Elgoibar Town Council and the PUNTUEUS Foundation sign an agreement to promote the use of Basque in the digital environment

The objective of the agreement is to promote the presence of the Basque language in the digital environment of Elgoibar. For this, and with the aim of using the .EUS domain, the Town Council and the PUNTUEUS foundation will grant subsidies to companies, entities and establishments in Elgoibar.

The PUNTUEUS Foundation and Elgoibar Town Council have signed an agreement to promote the digitalisation of companies, organisations and establishments, along with strengthening the use of Basque in the digital environment. The aim of the recently signed agreement is to promote the use of Basque in the digital environment of the town. To this end, a study of the current situation will be carried out. After that, different actions will be proposed to increase the use of Basque. Elgoibar Town Council and the PUNTUEUS Foundation representatives have explained the details of the recently signed agreement.

Josu Waliño, CEO of the PUNTUEUS Foundation, has claimed that “In order for Basque to have the presence it deserves in the digital environment, it’s essential to have a local impact, promoting the digitalisation of small companies, entities and establishments from the Basque language, through the .EUS domain”.

In fact, the main objective of the PUNTUEUS Foundation, which manages the .EUS domain, the principal domain of the Basque cultural community, is to use the Basque language to influence the digital transformation of society.

For this purpose, within the framework of this agreement, Elgoibar Town Council will grant its subsidies to use the .EUS domain. This way, 100 companies, establishments or entities in the town will be able to register the .EUS domain free of charge for the first year. In addition, the PUNTUEUS Foundation will offer those who wish to acquire the aforementioned domain the possibility of getting a free hosting for one year, so that they can develop their digital project. Therefore, those who wish to participate in this initiative and obtain a free .EUS domain for one year, should write to euskara@elgoibar.eus or call 943741050 (ext. 403).

There are currently 663 domains registered in Elgoibar. Of these, 117 use the .EUS domain, that is, 18%. The rest use .ES, .COM, .ORG or similar domains. On the other hand, if we have a look at the use of the language, Basque is present in 36% of the websites in Elgoibar.

Therefore, taking into account the presence of Basque on the town´s websites, the aim is to develop this initiative to change the current situation, that is, to increase the use of Basque in the digital environment as well. Elgoibar Town Council has a longstanding commitment to promoting the presence and use of Basque in this environment, as the Elgoibar Town Council website (www.elgoibar.eus) has belonged to the .EUS domain since the launch of this domain.

In addition to the Town Council, in Elgoibar there are several establishments, companies, entities and associations that also have the .EUS domain; in some cases they use more than one domain. For example:

Educational establishments: IMH, Meka, Elgoibar Ikastola, Ignazio Bereziartua Musika Eskola, Debabe Udal Euskaltegia, AEK euskaltegia…

Associations: Debemen, Elgoibarko Izarra, BARREN, Morkaiko Mendizale Elkartea….

Companies: Danobat, Danobatgroup, Ojmar, Softlan…

Commercial establishments: Txillarre, Barrutia optika…

It should be added that this initiative is in line with the objectives of Elgoibar Town Council, because it wishes to promote the use of Basque and offer citizens the possibility of living in Basque in all areas. For this reason, the Town Council and the PUNTUEUS Foundation want to take advantage of the opportunity offered by this agreement to ensure that the town’s cultural, socio-economic and educational agents also use Basque in the digital environment.