The JxCat candidate for Barcelona for the Congress, Miriam Nogueras; the Minister of Foreign Action and the European Union, Meritxell Serret (ERC); and the Platform for Language have demanded this Saturday that the Government take advantage of the presidency of the Council of the European Union to request the recognition of Catalan as one of its official languages.
The Platform for Language has denounced in a statement that Spain has “never” asked for Catalan to be official in Europe and ensures that the Council of the EU affirms this in response to a formal question from Irish MEP Chris MacManus.
This entity adds that, at the end of 2021, the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, declared that the Government of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero had already requested the official status of Catalan in 2004 and had been denied because “it was a reform that required the modification of the Treaties”.
Plataforma per la Llengua explains that the aforementioned Irish MEP presented a question on this issue and the Council responded that for a language to be official in the EU “it is enough that the member states that comprise it decide unanimously -through the Regulation that establishes which are the official languages ??- and there is no need to reform the European Treaty”.
“The Spanish government lies, whoever governs governs,” said Nogueras regarding the executive’s position on the use of Catalan in the European institutions in statements made from Vilassar de Mar (Barcelona).
“We denounce the repeated lies when it comes to Catalonia -Nogueras has indicated-. And we are here to say that there is enough”.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Union, Meritxell Serret, for her part, has claimed from Calonge (Girona), the defense of Catalan in Europe and has stated that “the PSC and the PSOE are not reliable when it comes to complying with this commitment”.
“Catalan in Europe has to defend itself, it only depends on political will, right now the PSC and the PSOE are not reliable when it comes to fulfilling this commitment”, the minister stated.
Serret has commented on the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU that the Government is facing it “with the vocation and ambition to transfer the proposals of the Catalan society and Government”.
The Generalitat intends to defend the interests of Catalonia “wherever possible” because they do not want to “leave any space empty” and they want to defend their proposals and interests with their own voice.
“But, unfortunately, this Spanish presidency starts late and badly, today, we have not yet officially received the priorities of the Spanish presidency,” he lamented.
