(EFE).- According to a communiqué issued today by the Gremio de Editores (Publishers' Association), Catalan publishing companies will give priority to trade, rather than linguistic criteria at the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair at which Catalan culture is to be the guest of honour.

A meeting was held in Barcelona today for publishing companies to exchange ideas. It was attended by a wide cross section of Catalonia's publishing companies.

They agreed that Catalonia's publishing companies should grasp this opportunity as many years had passed since the arts in general, and the world of publishing in particular, had not enjoyed such an important occasion as the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair to promote themselves abroad and would probably not have another one for many years.

The publishing companies are aiming to capitalise on their participation well beyond the year 2007 and their strategy is consequently a long-term one.

In the words of the Association's president Antoni Comas, "The 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair should be for the publishing companies what the Barcelona ring road was for Barcelona once the 1992 Olympic Games were over."

The publishing companies of Catalonia want to focus on the core issues of their business, "the cultural industry of publishing", leaving aside other viewpoints or controversies.

The communiqué goes on to say that in 2007 the Catalan publishing industry, an industry that has always been represented at the Frankfurt Book Fair, is committed to showing the world "its creative and productive capacity, regardless of each individual company's specialisation or the language in which it publishes its books, while respecting all the sensibilities raised by the fact that Catalan culture is the guest of honour".