The Spanish Government tried yesterday to persuade its European partners that the eventual recognition of Catalan, Galician and Basque as official languages of the European Union will not open the door for other minorities to seek similar recognition, and insists on the fact that it is a "unique case".
The agreement "is closer", the proposal "is moving forward", assured the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, after the debate held in the Council of General Affairs of the EU, despite the "skepticism" declared by Lithuania and Latvia - who fear that the extension of the linguistic regime of the EU institutions will encourage the demands of the Russian-speaking minorities living in their respective countries - or the insistence of the Nordic countries, France or Germany to pass as soon as possible better for technical work, since so far it has only been addressed on a political scale.
During his speech, Albares tried to clarify the doubts raised by his colleagues on September 19 and in the bilateral meetings they have had since then and announced that he will soon present them with a "reformed" legislative proposal, the whose definition "is circumscribed to the Spanish case", so that "other languages cannot be protected in this reform if the Member State does not wish it". Among the requirements that should be met for a co-official language of a Member State to be official in the EU would be constitutional recognition, use in the national Parliament, having administrative agreements with community institutions so that it is used in official communications or having made a certified translation of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The new text will also include the commitment of the Executive to assume the costs derived from expanding from 24 to 27 the number of official languages of the EU. At the request of the Central Government, the Spanish presidency of the Council has asked the European Commission to present a report on how much the reform would cost, a document that will be presented to the Twenty-seven as soon as it is available.
On this issue, the vice-president of the Community Executive, Dubravka Šuica, confirmed yesterday that she is ready to "coordinate" the collection of the data provided by the institutions to make the calculation, but she could not guarantee that the study is ready before November 15, the date on which the next meeting of the Council of General Affairs will take place. For now, it has not been decided that the issue should be addressed again at that meeting, said the chairman of the council, the Secretary of State for the EU, Pascual Navarro.
Once Spain submits its new proposal to reform the EU's language regime, the most normal thing would be to move to the technical work phase, as the majority of states insistently request, including Sweden and Finland, which from the first moment have shown reluctance towards the Spanish initiative. Germany was more demanding than in September, emphasizing that the initiative has "many implications" and asked to discuss it on a technical level. This is not the time for Latvia to take up this debate: the EU has "other concerns" that are more pressing, its minister, Krisjani Karins, said, and the Lithuanian minister supported Karins' closed-door speech. All in all, Albares was optimistic about the possibility of obtaining a tailor-made EU uniform for Catalan, Basque and Galician. "What matters are the vetoes, and there are none."
