This Tuesday, the Government once again presented to its European partners its long list of reasons for recognizing Catalan, Basque and Galician as official languages ??of the EU, based on various legal and political arguments, such as that linguistic plurality is part of the “ national identity”, but the Spanish request continues without progress, a situation for which it blames the Popular Party.
The matter was addressed at the end of the EU General Affairs Council as an “information point” at the request of the Spanish delegation, which distributed a memorandum among the rest of the member states. The argument was defended by the Secretary of State for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, who spoke for about ten minutes, according to European sources.
“Spain has expressed its position and we have taken note,” but “there has been no debate on the matter in the Council,” explained the Belgian Foreign Minister, Hadja Lahbib, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council and is responsible for both of the meeting agenda. According to Sampedro, there is a “real understanding” among the rest of the partners of the Spanish request.
The only reactions to the memorandum on the co-official status of Catalan were those expressed by some ministers to the press upon their arrival at the meeting. “When we make a decision, we have to know what it can lead to,” warned the representative of Finland, Anders Adlercreutz, who once again evoked the existence of a minority language in his country, Sami.
Sweden maintains a similar position, diplomatic sources explained, and is not convinced of the idea emphasized by the Government that the proposal is tailored to the case of the Spanish co-official languages ??and “will not create any precedent.”
Although they have exchanged impressions, Spain has not formally requested an opinion from the Council’s legal service but their opinions on the fit of the new languages ??into community legislation do not coincide. “The underlying issue regarding the legal basis of the proposal is not resolved,” summarize community sources familiar with the dossier.
Spain maintains that it is enough to reform the regulation in question and evokes the example of Gaelic. Other countries still doubt that it is possible to take that step if they are no longer treaty languages.
Instead of fighting at a technical and legal level, the Government has chosen to play the political card, claiming the “highest priority” of the issue for Spain, whose co-official languages ??are spoken by more than 20 million people.
In his opinion, the lack of progress has to do with the political color of the majority of Governments of the Twenty-Seven, partners of the European People’s Party. “If the PP wanted, tomorrow, at the table of the European Parliament we could convert Catalan, Basque and Galician into a working language. And if you help us continue explaining better to the countries represented in the Council of your political family, we could also achieve that official status,” launched the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, on the eve of the meeting.
Sampedro encouraged the PP to join the demand, which the Government “is not going to abandon”, but while he defended it in the Council, popular and Citizens MEPs waged their own battle in the European Parliament and moved forward in the Petitions committee. a report that defends the equality of Spanish and Catalan in Catalan schools.