It was one of the conditions that Junts demanded from the PSOE for the formation of the Congress Bureau, but the official status of Catalan in the European Union remains unclear. So much so that the matter will not be debated at the next meeting of the General Affairs Council, scheduled for Monday 29 January.
Belgium holds the EU Council presidency this semester. According to sources in the Catalan News Agency (ACN), it is waiting for an alternative proposal on officialdom that is “compatible with the treaties”. Thus, the Spanish Government’s proposal should include the administrative, legal and financial impact that the inclusion of Catalan would entail.
Spain presided over the Council of the EU from July to December. The Spanish Government submitted a request at the request of Junts for Catalan, Galician and Basque to be included in the linguistic regime of the European Union. It was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who sent a letter to the General Secretary of the Council, Thérèse Blanchet.
The Government of Pere Aragonès got involved so that it could be carried out and even the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meritxell Serret, has traveled several times to different European locations to reinforce the request.
Since then, the process has stalled. The issue of officialdom was debated four times last year (September 19, October 24, November 15 and December 12). None of these appointments resulted in a vote. In the last one, Albares gave an account to all the delegations of the elements that “make the Spanish case a unique case”. The commission referred to a preliminary report that it distributed on December 6, which indicated a cost of 132 million euros. A figure that the same commission requested to be revised, since the 2015 study to make Gaelic official was taken as an example.
The incoming Belgian presidency then undertook to continue the process for Catalan to be official in the EU, but in the first of the meetings under its leadership it has fallen off the agenda, although it will only be discussed technically.
The EU delegations are also waiting for two reports: from the Council’s legal services, to study whether the request complies with European Union law, and the new and specific one on economic impact.
The continental standstill contrasts with the national acceleration. The progressive implementation of the right to the use and understanding of the official languages ??in the Congress of Deputies is progressing at a good pace, so that, for this same period of sessions, the necessary means will be established so that there is simultaneous translation in up to three commission rooms at the same time.
With the exception of last-minute setbacks, this guarantees that Catalan, Galician or Basque can be used in the debate on the amendments to the Amnesty law, which is planned for the end of the month in the Commission of justice
Until the full implementation of the system, in the event that several commissions are held at the same time, the established criterion is the translation into Spanish by the same speaker or the delivery to the presidency of the Commission of the intervention translated in writing and with enough advance notice that it is possible facilitate all attendees.
