The end is uncertain and the times, longer than what the nationalist parties expect, but the negotiation to obtain the official status of Catalan, Galician and Basque in the European Union has been launched without great resistance and a less hostile environment than expected given the background. The Spanish Government, however, to favor the agreement, proposed yesterday to “prioritize” the deployment of Catalan as an official language before the others.
Having overcome the initial surprise of the European capitals to find, returning from the summer, that the Spanish Government intended to one day “adopt” a reform of the language regime of the community institutions to include their co-official languages, the Council of General Affairs (CAG) held a “constructive” debate on the proposal, according to its current president, the Secretary of State for the EU, Pascual Navarro.
There was no unanimity to go ahead with the initiative and a rejection would have meant the end of the legislative path, but all countries expressed their willingness to study it and the discussion has now passed into the hands of technicians and diplomats, under the supervision of ministers , to try to resolve the legal, budgetary and operational concerns it has raised. “The CAG will deal with it in future meetings”, Navarro added, without venturing when the debate could be more mature and return to the ministers’ table.
The debate lasted just 45 minutes. 21 delegations took the floor. All asked questions and asked to go deeper into the legal, practical and political implications in other countries with regional languages ??or when the EU enlarges. Specifically, the Secretary of State of France, Laurence Boone, wants to consult the Council’s legal service, an option that remains open but will only be used when there is a consensus text.
The Netherlands, which backed the initiative in 2004, said the measure had to be studied “in depth”, a comment “repeated a lot” during the various interventions, according to European diplomatic sources. Italy and Poland particularly insisted on the need for “caution” regarding the proposal. Instead, the representatives of Slovenia, Portugal, Belgium, Cyprus, Romania and Ireland expressed a clear willingness to support it.
The day began with the surprise of statements in Catalan by the Minister of European Affairs of Finland, Anders Aldercreutz, who contextualized the reservations expressed by his Government last week. He presented himself as a “great friend” of Catalan culture and advocated diversity, but warned that it is “too early” to make a decision. In his intervention in the Council, he showed understanding towards Spain’s request, but he raised the question of whether there would not be an “alternative” solution that would entail creating a new language status in the EU, because, without reaching full official status, they can be used in institutions.
The Spanish Government, however, remains firm in its request to obtain full official status for Spain’s co-official languages. In his speech to the Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, emphasized the “specificity” of the Spanish case – a constitutional language regime that is “practically unique” – and explained that these languages ??were already used in congress Its definition fits with the description of the co-official languages ??made by the Treaty of Lisbon.
The minister qualified that it is not about “minority languages”, but with millions of speakers, more than many official languages ??of the EU, and he recalled that Spain would bear the costs of the measure. Albares also reminded that it is not a “new or unprecedented” proposal by Spain, as it has been requesting it for 20 years, and last year the Spanish Government reactivated the dossier in the Eurochamber. The minister implicitly rejected that it is due exclusively to the political needs of Pedro Sánchez. But the context is clear, and France, for example, has expressed its desire to “help” Spain, while Germany declares itself open to the initiative.
At the end of the meeting, Albares revealed to the press that he had considered “prioritizing” the deployment of Catalan as an official language before Galician and Basque, which would be “followed”. “Some member states have proposed that including three languages ??at once was more difficult and we have proposed” that the language that “more insistently” has asked for officialdom and has more speakers “be the first in the deployment”, it was justified Albares, who insisted that the final objective “does not change” and that recognition is requested for all three.
It is not recorded that any country explicitly said that it would be better to start with one language, but the Spanish Government, at the risk of angering the Basque and Galician nationalists, has chosen to prioritize Catalan in order to speed up the negotiation. Albares proposed it at the end of the meeting and it has not been debated. The dossier is now in the hands of the working groups of the Council and the ambassadors. “There have been no vetoes” and “we have launched” the reform of the community regulations, the minister celebrated. “The Spanish Government has fulfilled its commitment”.
