Spain's new offensive to overcome reluctance to Catalan in the EU

BrusselsThe official status of Catalan in the European Union was One of Junts' conditions in exchange for investing Pedro SánchezHowever, the Socialist leader has been re-elected as president of the Moncloa government for over a year and a half, and Catalonia's own language still lacks full recognition in the EU institutions. Therefore, pressure is mounting from the regional government, which wants to show it can get something in return for supporting the Spanish prime minister, and Sánchez's administration wants to ensure it doesn't lose its plurinational majority in Congress.

In this regard, the Spanish government has launched a new offensive in the EU to achieve official status for Catalan, Galician, and Basque. While a few months ago, the diplomatic delegations of the member states in Brussels consulted by ARA had almost forgotten about this initiative, the tone has changed dramatically in recent days. All European partners assure that they are "analyzing" the proposal promoted by the Spanish government and admit that pressure from Sánchez's administration has increased. "We know that internally, this is an issue of great concern to Spain," notes a diplomatic source.

However, the vast majority of diplomatic sources are avoiding announcing the vote of their member state in the EU General Affairs Council this Tuesday, where the official status of Catalan will be discussed again. In fact, despite Spain's haste, some of the partners consulted directly indicate that they believe this week is "too soon" for approval, especially considering that it must be processed unanimously. The next meetings in the EU Council where this initiative could be discussed are June 24 and 27, and later in September, at the start of the political year and when budget negotiations will begin.

The reluctance of member states

Despite Spain's new offensive, the reluctance of the Member States remains the same, and above all, it is political in nature. "It's a regional language," says a diplomatic source, who fears that the official status of Catalan will open a "Pandora's box" of minority languages in Europe. In fact, several European partners fear that the initiative could encourage other minority linguistic communities to request the same. This fear is especially acute for countries with Russian-speaking minorities, such as the Baltics.

In this regard, according to the newspaper Financial TimesSpain has threatened the Baltic countries by reconsidering the military support it provides to countries bordering Russia, especially Latvia. However, the Moncloa denies this. "Spain's commitment to the security of Eastern Europe and the presence of Spanish troops is firm and unconditional. It is never, and has never been, in question," assure Spanish government sources. Along the same lines, diplomatic sources from the Baltic countries also deny this information to the ARA and claim that security and coordination of military forces is a matter for NATO, not the EU.

Another aspect that concerns some European partners is of a legal nature. Some member states have doubts about whether making Catalan, Galician, and Basque official requires reforming the EU treaties, which would greatly complicate the process of the initiative. On the other hand, some states criticize the costs of including three more languages among the 24 already official languages.

In the face of these doubts, however, the Moncloa promises that it would cover the costs and points out that Catalan, Galician, and Basque are already co-official languages in the Spanish state. Therefore, there would be no need to reform the EU treaties. Furthermore, the Spanish government asserts that there is no other language in the entire European bloc without a member state behind it that is co-official or official within a state as a whole, which would protect other linguistic communities from requesting the same.

On the other hand, with the same objective of allaying reluctance, sources from the Moncloa (Ministry of Justice) report that Spain proposes gradually making Catalan, Basque, and Galician official. According to the Europa Press news agency, this would involve repealing the regulations that make Catalan official as soon as they come into force, and only translating regulations of the Council and European Parliament, which only account for 3% of the legal documents of the European Union institutions.

Thus, once the regulations are repealed, Member States would have a maximum of four years to review the repeal and, if they so wish, they may lift it. However, this is a decision that requires unanimity. operation would be similar to that of the Irish, which took seventeen years to become fully official in the European Union.

To counter the efforts of the Moncloa, both the Spanish government and Junts criticize the PP for pressuring the Popular Party (PP) across the EU to vote against it. According to ABC, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has told Genoa that he can count on its support, but that he does not want to be alone in vetoing the initiative and has asked the Spanish Popular Party (PP) to try to convince more member states to avoid the official status of Catalan.

Specifically, Spanish Foreign Minister José María Albares commented this Monday in an interview on RNE on the need for the PP to also row in favor and expressed his wish: "May tomorrow all Spaniards and all Spanish political parties do everything in our power to convince the political forces to convince the political forces in favor." The President of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), Salvador Illa, also spoke out in a media address from Tokyo. The President of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), Salvador Illa, hopes that the official status of Catalan in the European Union will finally be approved this Tuesday. "I trust that tomorrow will go well," he stated on the eve of the states' vote on official status. In his opinion, it is "a well-founded request" and "they are doing everything they must to ensure it comes to fruition," although he wished to be "extremely cautious."

Likewise, the Minister of European Union and Foreign Affairs, Jaume Duch, stated on Catalunya Ràdio that he is "moderately optimistic" that Catalan will become an official language of the EU. Duch emphasized that "the Spanish government has taken this as a true priority" and that "all the work that needed to be done and more has been done" to convince the states to do "linguistic justice."