Spain revived its support for Catalan in the EU less than a month ago: "It's fallen asleep."

BrusselsExpectations for Tuesday's European Union Council meeting were high. The Moncloa insisted that this was a key meeting for achieve official status for Catalan in European institutions and that they had put all the diplomatic machinery at the disposal of the cause demanded by Junts. However, several diplomatic delegations of member states to the EU assure ARA that the Spanish government did not contact them again to discuss the official status of Catalan until just three or four weeks before this Tuesday's ministerial meeting, in which a majority of European partners requested a postponement of the vote on the proposal.

Along the same lines, a diplomatic source assures that the Spanish government appears to have "slept" for almost a year or a year and a half, since shortly after Spain ceased to hold the temporary presidency of the Council of the EU, which it relinquished in December 2023. In fact, since then, thanks to the initiative of Catalan, Galician, and Basque, it has made very little progress; and it had been completely relegated to the background. Throughout Hungary's presidency of the Council of the EU, for example, it was not discussed.

A few months before Tuesday's meeting, the same diplomatic delegations to the EU consulted by this newspaper stated that Spain had not contacted them for some time to discuss the official status of Catalan, and some were even unaware of the details of the initiative. However, the tone on the matter has changed among member states in recent days, during which the Spanish government has significantly increased its pressure.

"We are aware that this is a priority for Spain," said a diplomatic source. "We know it is a politically sensitive and important issue in Spain," added another source. In other words, for the first time in months, whether due to pressure from Pedro Sánchez's administration or the PP, they were aware that this was truly a major issue for the Spanish government. Even the European countries most reluctant to the initiative, such as Germany and Italy, expressed this view, although they asked for more time to thoroughly study the Spanish proposal.

Spain's pressure has gained support.

Despite the member states' request to postpone the vote on the official status of Catalan, the last-minute offensive by the Moncloa government at least served to garner some support for the initiative. For the first time, the Danish government, which is also part of the Social Democratic family, publicly stated its support, and Belgium, Portugal, and Ireland expressed more explicit support, according to various diplomatic sources. Cyprus and Hungary also showed greater willingness for the first time, joining Romania.

In this regard, several representatives of EU governments, such as France, Cyprus, Denmark, and Austria, assured the press on Tuesday that they had held meetings and calls with the Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, in recent days. Furthermore, the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, assured that they would not reduce pressure on the rest of their European partners and that he would contact at least seven countries in the coming days. They asked for a turn to speak in the closed-door discussion to make their reservations explicit. Although Albares avoided specifying which member states were involved, diplomatic sources indicate to the ARA that they are Germany, Italy, Croatia, Austria, Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic.

Albares asked the other states this Wednesday for "a concrete debate." "I want them to tell me what part of our proposal they don't like or would like to change. Do they want to change something to protect some legitimate interest? What is it? If the answer is none, let them join in unanimously. What I want are specific points, not abstractions," he stated, and asserted that Spain has a well-founded proposal, convinced that it would respond in the event of an electoral change (that is, that it would pay the €140 million cost of the translations). The minister denied that official approval is being requested in exchange for support in terms of security; he simply asked for reciprocity in Europe: "We expect solidarity with our national identity."

The Catalan government has taken the same line. The President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, sent a "message of confidence to the public" in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio amid his trip to Tokyo. "We will end up achieving this milestone," he asserted. He commented that the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has been involved "to the extent necessary" and "has taken the issue very seriously," which—and he used the same terms as Albares—"is part of Spain's linguistic identity." The Minister of Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, called for a "swift and effective" response to the doubts some countries have about the official status of Catalan, now that the issue is heated. He emphasized on TV3 that "there has been no rejection of the language's official status, but rather a request for time."

Isla expresses "confidence" and Junts approves of the Spanish government

The secretary general of the regional government, Jordi Turull, for his part, approved this Wednesday the Spanish government's efforts to make it official"Finally, there has been the involvement that needed to be there," he stated in an interview on TV3. He expressed that "we are closer" and that "depending on how you look at the glass," there is "positive news" about Tuesday's session. Therefore, he justified the regional government's refusal to fall into pessimism or "gesticulation" and called for discretion and intact confidence in the process. In line with what former president of the Generalitat and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, already stated this Tuesday, he attacked the PP's campaign, who has called on states to curb officialdom: He described it as "very brutal" and noted that it "has had its effects" in some countries.

In any case, the hope of Junts and the Spanish and Catalan governments has also been displayed by ERC, although its spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, this Wednesday once again cast doubt on the influence of Sánchez's government in Europe. "It doesn't help sow doubts," replied Albares, who defended it as an "irrenounceable" commitment. Rufián pointed out to Junts that their commitments to the PSOE for the Catalan language have not yet been fulfilled, and he has not called them "traitors, butifleres, or useless": "Take note, it's called patriotism," he affirmed.