A change of direction in Spain's strategy to achieve recognition of the official status of co-official languages in the European Union. In view of the doubts expressed by some countries about the possibility of adding three new languages at once to the linguistic regime of the community institutions, the Government has decided that it is going to "prioritize" Catalan and postpone the deployment of Galician and Spanish. Basque, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, explained in Brussels, who nevertheless stressed that the "objective" of achieving the recognition of the three languages does not change.
"Today a key step has been taken (...). It was a very important day to continue advancing in the reform of the linguistic regime. This is what has been achieved, there has been no veto and from now on we are going to work with the mechanisms and routines provided by the Council to resolve doubts" said Albares at the end of the meeting of the General Affairs Council of the EU, in which, in view of the fact that all the countries asked for more time and more information, it was agreed to continue analyzing the request within the usual channels of the Council. The balance of the acting Government is highly successful: "Today the reform of regulation 1/58 has been launched" and the process "will follow the usual channels" to try to resolve the doubts of the other delegations.
Albares has denied that prioritizing Catalan represents discrimination with respect to the other co-official languages recognized in the Spanish Constitution. "Not at all," he stressed. "Some member states have suggested that influencing three languages at once was more difficult and we have opened up to the language whose representatives have most insistently requested its inclusion within the modification of the regulation and which is spoken by more than 10 million people (Catalan) be the first to be deployed," explained Albares, but the final objective "does not change." "Following" the deployment of Catalan, progress will be made "with the other two languages."
Government sources insist that, once the Council recognizes the principle that Catalan fits within its linguistic regime, Galician and Basque will follow "immediately afterwards" in their operational deployment in the institutions, but not in recognition. During the Council discussion, there was talk of possible "transitional periods" and the "graduality" of the measure, added the head of Spanish diplomacy, thus evoking the concepts that were used to incorporate Gaelic among the official languages of the EU fifteen years ago.
Albares has reiterated to his European counterparts that in no case is he talking about "minority languages", as Sweden has proposed, for example, and that this is not the case. Given the evident lack of unanimity on the Spanish request, no vote has been called. The Government has also reiterated Spain's willingness to assume the costs of making Catalan, Basque and Galician official in the EU. Albares has avoided stating when the proposal could be adopted but has stressed that "on Spain's part the will is to move forward as quickly as possible." A total of 21 countries took the floor during the debate held today in Brussels to ask for more information, especially on the legal fit of the measure, as well as more time to position themselves.
In view of the fact that there was no unanimity, the Spanish presidency of the Council has renounced organizing any vote and has decided to refer the issue to the institution's working groups, as is customary to proceed with issues that cannot be approved by a qualified majority. "There they will be channeled and try to resolve all doubts," explained Albares. It will be within these working groups or Coreper, the forum that brings together the ambassadors of the Twenty-seven, where it could be decided to request some type of legal report from the Council, a request that France has raised, for example. This request, however, will only be made when a specific proposal to reform the regulation is reached, not before, so that community jurists can rule on an agreed text to try to dispel the doubts of all countries.
