BRUSSELS: Spain has revived a push for Basque, Catalan and Galician to be made official EU languages, despite a less-than-enthusiastic response from fellow European countries fearing a domino effect.
After an unsuccessful bid in 2023, Madrid brought its regional language campaign back to Brussels this week, managing to get it onto the agenda of a meeting of European ministers on Tuesday.
No decision was made — and the question was punted to a later date for lack of consensus, according to the Polish EU presidency — with the awkwardness palpable as ministers were quizzed on the issue by reporters.
For context, the socialist government of prime minister Pedro Sanchez depends on support from Catalan lawmakers to get most of its legislation through the Spanish parliament.
Spain has generated “big pressure” around the linguistic question, said a second diplomat, on condition of anonymity.
But concerns are rife among other EU countries that a change in Spain’s favour could open the door to similar requests for any number of minority languages.
“We understand the importance of this issue for Spain,“ stressed Marilena Raouna, deputy European affairs minister for Cyprus.
“What is important is that it is done in a way that is legally sound and that does not create a precedent,“ she added.
The European Union currently has 24 official languages but there are around 60 minority and regional languages in the 27-nation bloc.
All legal EU documents — treaties, laws and international agreements — must be translated into the 24 languages with interpretation available at leaders’ summits and ministerial meetings.
The Russian question
Adding a new language requires unanimous support among the 27 member states — far from secured in this case.
Speaking on Catalan television network 3Cat on Tuesday, Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares said seven countries still opposed the plan — promising to reach out to each to address their concerns.
“This is an irrevocable commitment by the Spanish government,“ he said. “We want what is the norm on the streets of Spanish cities to be the norm in Europe’s streets too.”
Several countries signalled sympathy with Madrid, while voicing reservations.
“We really do see and appreciate the efforts the Spanish government is vesting in this topic,“ summed up the Croatian minister, Andreja Metelko-Zgombic.
“It deals also with some legal implications, and I think we would be best served to look at it really, very, very closely,“ she added.
Some warn against “making a European issue out of a national one”, in the words of one diplomat.
Several countries fear a knock-on effect.
In the Baltic countries for instance, there are fears that Russian — spoken by a large part of the population — could be made an official language of the bloc, said Marko Stucin, Slovenia’s state secretary for European affairs.
According to one diplomat, the legal services of the European Council, which brings together member states, consider that answering Spain’s request would require changing the bloc’s founding treaties.
“We have to act in accordance with European treaties,“ said France’s Europe minister Benjamin Haddad. “Let’s work together with the Spanish to find a solution.”
But other countries have hinted at a possible compromise: limiting any change to long-established regional languages that already have official status at a national level.
In that scenario, argues Slovenia’s Stucin, only three languages would be eligible: Basque, Catalan and Galician.
Madrid argues indeed that the three tongues — of which Catalan is the most widely-used with more than nine million speakers — should be considered in a different category to other minority languages.
Another sensitive issue is cost, with the bloc seeking to pour billions into strengthening its defences, and bracing for a gathering trade war with Washington.
Spain, according to Stucin, has always insisted it would foot the extra translation bill.
That remains to be seen, cautions another EU diplomat.
