Following today’s debate at the EU ministers’ meeting for European affairs, the Spanish government proposes the gradual introduction of Spanish regional languages as official languages of the Union. They intend to give priority to Catalan, which is spoken by the most people.
As the Spanish Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jose Manuel said Albaresnone of the member states vetoed the Spanish proposal to recognize Catalan, Basque and Galician like official languages of the EU. However, some members requested more time to examine the proposal and its implementation.
“Due to the doubts of some countries that the introduction of three languages at once might be too much and that they should be introduced gradually, we have decided to give preference to Catalan over Basque and Galician,” it is Albares said after a discussion with ministerial colleagues from other member states. He assured that the final decision on the introduction of all three languages does not change with this.
He justified the decision to give priority to Catalan by saying that its representatives are “the most persistent” in their request for recognition like official language. In addition, it is spoken by the most people, namely more like 10 million, he explained. According to him, this places Catalan among the 15 languages in the Union in terms of the number of speakers.
According to the minister, several countries have also expressed concern about the financial costs of introducing an additional three languages, which is why Spain is ready to take on the costs that European institutions would incur.
Sanchez needs the support of Catalan separatists
The efforts of the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to make the trinity of languages like officially recognized by Brussels, are related to his attempt to meet the demands of Catalan separatists in particular, whose support he urgently needs if he wants to stay in power.
In August, for example, the seven Catalan MPs already enabled the election of Socialist candidate Francine Armengol for the president of the Spanish parliament, and in return they got a promise about the strengthened use of Catalan in the parliament and efforts for its recognition like official language in the EU.
As of today, Spanish MPs can use Catalan, Basque and Galician in parliament, which has already caused tensions between members of parliament.
Deputies of the far-right party Vox left the plenary hall during the speech of one of the deputies in Galician. In the party of defenders of Catalan independence Junts meanwhile, they called today a historic day.
Slovenian State Secretary Marko Štucin said that Slovenia like a great supporter of multilingualism ready to support the Spanish proposal, while at the same time realizing that its provision in the EU is already a technical and financial challenge for the EU institutions.
Source: Rtvslo
