The EU warns Spain that to make Catalan official, the treaties must be changed.

BrusselsThe Council of the European Union dismantles one of the main arguments of the Spanish government to convince the rest of the member states to make Catalan an official language on the community blog. According to ACN and ARA, the legal services of the institution that represents the 27 countries of the European Club maintain that the EU treaties must be changed to recognize Catalan, Galician, and Basque as official languages. This condition would represent a new obstacle to the initiative presented by Spain, which several member states still oppose. This Friday, the EU General Affairs Council meets, and the issue is expected to be discussed again.

Diplomatic sources from several member states explain in this newspaper that the legal services of the EU Council already expressed their doubts at the last ministerial meeting where the Spanish proposal was discussed, at the General Affairs Council on May 27. In fact, they have already done so on previous occasions, and one of the Member States' main fears is that the EU treaties will have to be reformed to add Catalan, Galician, and Basque to the list of official languages. However, EU Council sources are now blunt and report that legal services affirm that the treaties should be amended.

In the proposal that Spain will present at the General Affairs Council this Friday, the Moncloa attempts to allay precisely these legal doubts held by European partners and asserts that under no circumstances is it necessary to modify the EU treaties. Thus, in this document, to which ARA has had access, the Spanish government argues that reform is not necessary because Article 342 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU states that it is the Council of the EU that "unanimously [...] shall determine the linguistic regime of the EU institutions." "It is not necessary to modify the treaties," the text insists.

In any case, sources from the Spanish Foreign Ministry remain optimistic about the initiative and assure that they "do not see any obstacle" to its eventual approval. However, there is no reason to believe that it will be processed at this Friday's ministerial meeting, which will not be attended by Minister José Manuel Albares. Sources from the EU Council itself admit that the main topic of discussion will not be the official status of Catalan, Galician, and Basque; but rather the European Commission's proposal for the next multiannual EU budget.

Albares himself admitted in statements to the media on Monday that there was no "unanimity" to vote on the initiative, and several diplomatic sources assure this newspaper that nothing has changed since the last time it was brought to a ministerial meeting. In any case, the Foreign Minister stated that he is willing to resort to European courts to obtain official status for Catalonia's own language.

A new stumble

It is clear that the obligation to change the EU treaties would greatly complicate the path of Catalan toward official status in the European institutions. In fact, they have only been reformed three times since 1992. The last time they were modified was in 2007 in Lisbon. Furthermore, they have also been amended each time new member states have joined the European project over the years. Needless to say, any amendment to the treaties usually involves lengthy negotiations and disputes, and at this time, there is no indication that the member states are willing to undertake a reform of this magnitude.