The EU postpones sine die the decision on the co-official languages and Spain asks in a last attempt to "prioritize Catalan" over Basque and Galician

The European ministers have postponed this Tuesday, sine die, the decision on the Spanish request for Galician, Basque and Catalan to be official languages. They want more time to study and debate the proposal, they want legal reports, a cost estimate and an assessment of what the impact could be on the functioning of the European Union.

The 27 have not put a veto on the table, not at the moment, although unanimity is required for approval.. Spain has offered to assume all the resulting expenses, has assured that it is “good for Europe” and is in line with the “multilingualism objectives set out in Article 3 of the Treaties” and has even, in an unexpected turn, offered ” prioritize Catalan” and leave the other two for later. But even so, the General Affairs Council has decided to postpone the debate until they have data, reports from the services of the institutions and more clarity. Which in the best case scenario will be many months.

That the Spanish motion, which was express for debate and approval, was not going to come out was no surprise.. Many countries have made it clear these weeks, publicly and privately, that this was not the way to address the issue.. They understand Spain's hurry, the political relevance for the Government, but they believe that things cannot be done that way. “The Government has fulfilled its commitment,” the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, assured from Brussels.. “Today we have launched the reform of regulation” 1/58 that affects the linguistic regime of the Union. It was all Spain could do, because the decision belongs to everyone.

But the surprise has come from the decision to put Catalan before Basque and Galician.. “The presidency [which this semester corresponds precisely to our country] has verified that no one has expressed a veto. No Member State has vetoed,” Minister Albares highlighted.. “Some have asked for more time to analyze what the development and implementation would look like. We have agreed to continue working to respond and channel the comments,” he added.

One of the issues that countries like Sweden and Finland have expressed in writing, and many others in private, is the cost of adding three languages at once.. “Spain has indicated its commitment to assume any costs, as we have done since 2005 for administrative arrangements. And transitional periods and gradualness have been proposed. We have agreed to give priority to Catalan and then continue with the other two languages,” explained the Foreign Minister, who has come expressly to give political weight to the meeting, since usually in these European meetings the representative is the Secretary of State.

First and second language languages

The Government's decision is a blow for Basques and Galicians. Pedro Sánchez's Executive assures that “it is not discrimination”, but rather gradualness and realism. “The end of the proposal is clear, that the three languages form part of the EU linguistic regime. Some countries have argued that three languages at the same time was more difficult. So we have opened ourselves to prioritizing the language whose representatives have shown the most insistence on inclusion and which has 10 million speakers, so that it is the first in the deployment,” explained Albares.

Although in practice it is not very clear how it would be done, there are different possibilities. One, convince the 27 to accept the three languages at once, but only use Catalan for the moment.. May it serve as a battering ram to get used to and the others will be incorporated into the daily life of the EU later. Another option would be an intermediate status, so that they are used in some areas, but not in all.. Government sources pointed out the case of Gaelic, the last language recognized as official, which achieved that status but in practice has not been used in institutions for 15 years and still with certain limits..

The issue is forcing many capitals to take a stand. Finland does not hide its reservations, but its Foreign Minister, Anders Adlercreutz, wanted to show all angles. Upon his arrival in Brussels this morning, speaking in Catalan, he clarified his position. “I am a great friend of Catalan culture. Together we must defend the linguistic diversity of the EU, but we must also know the consequences of decisions. That's why it's too early to make a decision today,” he explained.. “We are going to help Spain as much as possible” but “for that we need legal reports” that help clarify how and where “regional languages” can be used,” agreed the French secretary of state for the EU, Laurence Boone.

At the end of the meeting, Adlercreutz explained that he did not remember any discussion in the room about prioritizing Catalan, nor that anyone expressed explicit reservations about including three languages at once.. The Finnish has admitted that it is probably easier to go little by little, “because one change is always easier than four changes”, and he sees more room for aspiring languages to be used in certain areas of work, without necessarily being languages. officers. Something that other countries, like Croatia for example, completely reject, for fear that there will end up being first and second category languages..

The issue will not change level, it will not rise to the heads of State and Government. It will continue to be the ministers or secretaries of State for the EU who will provide follow-up in the General Affairs Councils, but without any type of deadline in mind. Reports from the legal services of the institutions, and the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament have one, normally take months for something of this style. The same goes for economic calculations.. It is a politically sensitive issue, and it is clear that among the 26 remaining community partners there is no urgency. On the contrary, the longer it stays in the refrigerator, the better.. There is a solid excuse not to run and little that can be done from the outside.

Furthermore, there is an additional angle that France in particular, but also others, take advantage of.. While Spain is betting on co-official languages, any possibility that in a future EU, expanded to more members, Spanish will compete to be in the group of working languages disappears.. Our country has several wars open for the use of Spanish, or rather, for not being able to use it, with historical blockades. On the side of patents or on the side of the exams for community oppositions. You can fight that battle or the other, but both, at the same time, will not be easy.

The BNG regrets the decision

“From the BNG, from Brussels, we regret the decision of the Spanish government conveyed today in the Council of the European Union to prioritize some languages over others,” MEP Ana Miranda reacted after learning of the conclusions of the meeting of the Ministers of General Affairs. of the European Union. In this sense, the nationalist deputy demands equal treatment for Galician by emphasizing that for the Bloc “there are no second-class languages.”

On the other hand, Miranda, who takes turns in the community seat with Bildu, criticizes the absence of deadlines to implement the official status of the three languages and points out that the Block hopes that “request a legal opinion on the consequences of the official status of Galician , Catalan and Basque and an analysis of its economic impact is not a maneuver to extend its implementation sine die”.