Europe was warned, but not ready to take sides as quickly as the times of Spanish politics indicate. Pedro Sánchez's agreement to apply to Brussels for the officialization of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the European Union was one of the commitments that in the summer unlocked the formation of the Congress Bureau and , then the Spanish Government put the demand on the table in Brussels.
The point has been on the agenda of the General Affairs Council (CAG) for Tuesday 19 September since the beginning of the month. But when the detailed agenda was published, many delegations were alarmed by the express sequence proposed by the Spanish Government to make changes to regulation number 1 of the Council, the legal instrument of 1958 that sets the language regime of the European Economic Community: presentation, exchange of impressions and "adoption".
"All on the same day?", diplomatic sources commented with skepticism at the beginning of the week in the face of an initiative that needs something pretty impressive in Brussels, the unanimity of the Twenty-seven. Pressured by having to pronounce in a few days, several countries (Sweden first, Finland later) made their reservations about the idea clear. On Wednesday it was the Swedish Minister of European Affairs, the conservative Jessica Roswall, who raised the fear that the Spanish request would make the EU less efficient, evoked its budgetary cost and pointed out that "there are many minority languages that are not officials within the EU". On Friday, it was the Finnish Government that warned of the "increased financial and administrative burden" that the initiative would entail, which, in addition, would "probably" also "slow down the entry into force of the Union's regulations", already which must first have been translated into all their official languages, a process that is increasingly time-consuming.
The reservations and doubts publicly expressed by these countries have been evoked by practically all the delegations that took the floor, about 16, at the meeting of ambassadors held on Friday, in which the question and the Spanish delegation were examined for the first time expressed his willingness to "assume the costs" arising from his request. This approach differs from the EU's treatment of official languages, the use of which is fully financed by the EU budget, and could open the door to creating a new category of languages, so several countries considered how it would be defined and which ones can be accommodated.
At the meeting of ambassadors, almost all countries (including France, Germany, Belgium, Slovakia and Austria) asked to commission a report from the Council's legal service before making a statement. Spanish diplomatic sources deny that the atmosphere was hostile to the measure and emphasize that the ambassadors of various delegations expressed their sympathies towards the essence of the Spanish request and defended the importance of multilingualism. The Czech Republic and Slovenia pointed out that there are more speakers of Catalan than the official languages of their countries, but only the latter country and Portugal said clearly that if European jurists endorse it, they would support the initiative, according to sources diplomatic
Poland was much more critical and recalled that the agreements signed since 2005 between Spain and all the EU institutions - except for the European Parliament, where it was not possible due to the rejection of the European People's Party - already allow translate a large amount of texts into Catalan, Basque and Galician and interpret the representatives of Spain when they use some of these languages in meetings as long as they are notified in time to organize the necessary equipment. Hungary did not take the floor, but it is presumed that it can also speak against it during the CAG on Tuesday, which will be chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, on behalf of Spain.
For now, only the Government of Ireland has publicly shown its receptivity to the Spanish initiative. Although it is "too early" to set a position, "Ireland has always defended linguistic diversity and encouraged the greatest possible access by European citizens to information about the Union" and "this context will define its position in the Council debate", said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, in a recent debate in the Irish Parliament.
Dublin's apparent sympathy towards the officiality of Catalan, Galician and Basque is no accident. Ireland was the last – and only – country to successfully request an overhaul of the EU's language regime to include Gaelic as an official language, something it did not request when it joined in 1973, while the UK United, and it was settled that English should get that status. The new deal was negotiated in 2006 and included a repeal to allow time for all EU legislation to be translated into Gaelic. The shortage of translators prolonged the process so much that it did not become fully official until 2022, fifteen years later.
After the case of Gaelic, the list of official languages of the EU added one more language, by conventional means, in 2013 with the entry of Croatia and the incorporation of Croatian, bringing the total to 24. In 2016, Luxembourg left consider asking the EU to admit the Luxembourgish language (official in the country, along with German and French) among its official languages. But the initiative was only the answer to criticism of the Government for its disinterest in the language, there was no real demand among the population and the idea died without regret or glory.
Contrary to what the agenda for Tuesday's meeting suggests, nothing will be "adopted" or voted on that day. Rather, the expectation is to pass the issue to a Council working group and request a report from the legal services based on the new proposal. The initiative will begin to move, but with the proper times of the European discussions, not the rhythms of Spain.
