The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will once again take the official status of Catalan, Basque and Galician in Europe, to the meeting of the General Affairs Council on October 24, after confirming at the informal meeting of ministers of foreign affairs and cooperation held this Thursday in Murcia.
At the meeting, which had as its main points the enlargement of the European Union and the strategic autonomy of Europe, the Spanish Foreign Minister once again raised Spain's commitment to making these languages official in Europe, and considers that progress has been made. , since no country in the Union put any obstacle or raised any veto to the Spanish proposal, although in the previous meeting some member states asked for time.
José Manuel Albares, in a subsequent press conference, stressed that his intention is that at the meeting of the General Affairs Council on October 24 the matter will be debated again to "respond to the questions raised by the member countries", that is, the doubts and questions to make officiality possible. To this end, in that meeting there will be a specific point on this issue, where progress is expected to occur, even if there is no formal approval.
Albares' arguments before his European colleagues is that the co-official status of Catalan, Basque and Galician is "an almost unique specificity" in the European Union, since they are languages that are already recognized in the plenary sessions of the Congress and Senate of Spain. and there are already administrative agreements with the European Union for the translation of its treaties into these languages.
The Foreign Minister assured that he once again "confirms that all the countries of the European Union are working with Spain on this proposal", since "no country has spoken at the informal meeting of the General Affairs Council held today, to hinder it." , when he has addressed the matter in his speech.
Albares is optimistic and emphasizes that the council reflects on "what the future of Europe will be" and that future will be multilingual," the Foreign Minister stressed, at least that, he said, is the commitment of the Government of Spain.
The official status of Catalan, Galician and Basque in the European Union was addressed for the first time at the meeting of the General Affairs Council held on September 19, but the Twenty-seven chose not to make a decision on the inclusion of the three languages , as Spain had requested, after Junts and ERC demanded it to support the PSOE candidate to preside over Congress. EU member countries await a legal opinion from the Council of the Union on the consequences of the measure and an analysis of its economic and practical impact on the functioning of the bloc.
To overcome reluctance due to the economic impact, the Government of Pedro Sánchez has offered to assume the cost of translating and interpreting Catalan, Basque and Galician under the same conditions as the rest of the EU's official languages.
After the Council, Minister Albares raised the possibility of starting with Catalan to facilitate the inclusion of the three languages, although he later clarified that this does not mean prioritizing this language, and that the request is to include Catalan, Basque and Galician. in the linguistic regime simultaneously.
What the minister did not want to talk about, in the press conference held in Murcia after the informal meeting of the general affairs council, was the possibility of granting an amnesty to those responsible for the process, and whether this fact could clash with the legislation European Union, which has already opposed other amnesties that were intended in EU countries. "Out of respect for the commissioner, I will stick to the issues discussed in the council" and when the issue "is put on the table, if it is put on the table," he will rule on its adaptation to European standards.
