On Tuesday 24 October, Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, welcomed the “decisive advances” made in his country’s request for Catalan, Galician and Basque to be granted the status of official languages of the European Union (see EUROPE 13253/22).
At the end of the round-table discussion on the issue, which took place during the ‘General Affairs’ Council, he noted “no opposition from any Member State” to the subsequent presentation of a request adapted to take account of the comments of certain countries. In this respect, he reiterated that Spain would bear all the budgetary costs of translation and interpreting, as the European Commission had been asked to prepare reports on this issue.
Mr Albares also repeatedly emphasised the “unique nature” of Spain’s request, which he believes will not trigger similar requests from other countries: - the three regional languages concerned are recognised in the Spanish Constitution and used in the national Parliament; - administrative agreements exist with the EU institutions for the translation of texts into these three languages (certified copies of translations of European treaties are available); - these languages are spoken by a large number of people (over 9 million for Catalan).
However, the Minister was unable to specify a timetable leading to an official decision, while the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Pascual Ignacio Navarro Ríos, has not confirmed that the issue will be on the agenda of the ‘General Affairs’ Council on Wednesday 15 November.
On behalf of the European Commission, Dubravka Šuica indicated that the EU institution had no decision-making powers, but was prepared to coordinate work on the issue of budget costs. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)