Yesterday, the Central Government again presented to its European partners its long list of reasons for recognizing Catalan, Basque and Galician as official languages of the EU, and it was based on several legal and political arguments, such as that linguistic plurality is part of "national identity", but the Spanish request continues without progress, a situation for which the Popular Party blames. The matter was addressed at the end of the EU General Affairs Council as an "informational point" at the request of the Spanish delegation, which distributed a memorandum to the rest of the member states. The argument was defended by the Secretary of State for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, who took the floor for nearly ten minutes, according to European sources.
"Spain has expressed its position and we have taken note of it, but there has been no debate on this issue in the Council", explained the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Hadja Lahbib, whose country holds the presidency of turn of the Council and is therefore responsible for the agenda of the meetings. According to Sampedro, there is a "real understanding" between the rest of the partners of the Spanish petition. Yesterday, the only reactions to the memorandum on the co-officiality of Catalan were those expressed by some ministers to the press when they arrived at the meeting. "When we make a decision, we must know what it can lead to", warned the representative of Finland, Anders Adlercreutz, who again evoked the existence of a minority language in his country, the Sami. Sweden maintains a similar position, explained diplomatic sources, and is not convinced, as proposed by the Government, that the proposal is tailored to the case of the Spanish co-official languages and "will not create any precedent".
Although they have exchanged impressions, Spain has not formally requested an opinion from the Council's legal service, but their opinions on the fit of the new languages in Community legislation do not coincide. "The question of substance on the legal basis of the proposal has not been resolved", summarize community sources familiar with the dossier. Spain claims that it is enough to reform the regulation in question and evokes the example of Gaelic. Other countries still doubt that it is possible to take this step if they are not already treaty languages.
Instead of a technical and legal dispute, the Government has chosen to play the political card, and has claimed the "highest priority" of the issue for Spain, whose co-official languages are spoken by more than 20 million people. In his opinion, the lack of progress has to do with the political color of the majority of governments of the Twenty-seven, partners of the European People's Party. "If the PP wanted, tomorrow at the European Parliament table we could make Catalan, Basque and Galician the working languages. And if he helps us to continue to explain it better to the countries represented in the Council of his political family, we could also achieve officialdom", stated the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, on the eve of the meeting.
Sampedro encouraged the PP to join the claim, which the Government "will not abandon", but while he was defending it in the Council, popular MEPs and Citizens were fighting their own battle in the European Parliament and pushing forward in the Petitions committee a report that defends the equality of Spanish and Catalan in Catalan schools.
