On Tuesday 27 May, at Spain’s request, the European Affairs ministers of the European Union countries were invited to give their opinion on Spain’s request to grant Catalan, Basque and Galician the status of official languages of the EU. Madrid’s request was not granted.
During the in camera debate at the General Affairs Council, around a third of the Member States said they understood the Spanish request, but wanted to have more information, particularly on financial and legal issues, before taking a decision on an issue that requires unanimity among the EU27.
On her arrival in Brussels, the Austrian minister, Claudia Plakolm, said that “many questions [remained] open on legal and financial issues”. For her Finnish counterpart, Joakim Strand, the issue was “not ready” for a vote on Tuesday.
Speaking to Catalan television, Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, referred to the support of “twenty countries” and the request from “seven Member States” for further work. He reiterated his country’s willingness to cover the full annual cost of granting official EU language status to Spain’s three regional languages, which the European Commission estimates at “€130 million”. And Mr Albares referred to the Spanish authorities’ analysis that Spain’s proposal is compatible with the European treaties.
See the Spanish legal analysis: https://aeur.eu/f/h2f
Some ten countries are calling for a proper analysis of the legal and financial impact of the Spanish request, including Austria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.
Faced with the reservations expressed by certain national delegations, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU preferred not to put the proposal to the vote and recommended that the work should continue. It has asked the European Commission to provide a more detailed analysis.
In Brussels, the Spanish Secretary of State, Fernando Mariano Sampedro Marcos, said that Spain was “closer than ever” to achieving the target it had set itself. He did not say whether the issue would be discussed again at the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Tuesday 24 June.
“There is nothing extravagant” about our request, which aims to give concrete expression to respect for the diversity of states within the EU, stressed Mr Albares, pointing out that “20 million” Spaniards, i.e. almost 40% of the population, speak one of the three languages in question, including “10 million Catalans”. He hoped that, in his country, all the political parties were in favour of Pedro Sánchez’s government’s request and ready to plead the cause of the three regional languages with the governments of the EU countries that were still reluctant.
Nor did the Spanish minister object to the case being brought before the Court of Justice of the EU, once the revision of Regulation 1958/1 on the language regime has been adopted. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)