The debate at 27 on the progress towards the recognition of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the EU scheduled this Wednesday in Brussels has been resolved in less than five minutes without any of the ministers in the room taking the floor after listening to the secretary's presentation of State for the EU, Pascual Navarro, as the legal, financial and practical evaluation requested by the partners to thoroughly examine the matter is still pending.
The point included by the Spanish Presidency in the Council of European Ministers of General Affairs has taken between "two" and "five minutes", according to the different diplomatic sources consulted by Europa Press, who add that this time has served "simply to say that the matter exists."
In this way, it has been said that the "revised" proposal that the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, already outlined in the previous session of this Council, on October 24, will continue to be examined at a "technical level", but which had not been presented as a formal document until late Monday.
Early this Wednesday, some of the ministers warned of the difficulties in advancing the discussion without having the required information.
"We have not had time, today's discussion will be short," the Finnish Minister of European Affairs, Anders Adlercreutz, told the press, who confirmed that the document was sent "in Spanish on Monday night" to the delegations. which has complicated your exam.
Although upon arrival at the meeting Navarro did not want to answer the questions about the new proposal, summoning the press at the end of the meeting, Albares already pointed out some keys in October of the elements that the revised document would include, taking into account the comments of the rest of the partners in the previous debates.
The Spanish Government insists that the recognition of co-official languages in Spain would be a "unique case" in the group of regional languages in the European Union due to "very specific" circumstances such as their fit in the Spanish Constitution, that they are used in Congress and in the Senate or the number of speakers. In addition, it has agreed to assume the bill for its introduction into the EU.
Several delegations maintain doubts for fear of a "domino effect" that encourages other minority languages, such as Corsican in France or Russian in the Baltic countries, to claim for themselves the same status that Spain seeks for Catalan, Basque and Galician. .
In any case, evaluations are still pending on the financial, legal and practical impact that the recognition of the three languages would have for the EU as a whole, a task that the European Commission has offered to coordinate with the rest of the institutions and that Spain estimates that they will not be ready before "two or three months."
This calendar makes it difficult for the substantive debate on Twenty-Seven to be addressed before the end of the rotating presidency that allows Spain to set the agenda for discussions this semester, which ends on December 31.
