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Spain expects progress in the recognition of Catalan, Basque, and Galician in the EU

by AI | 28.Jan 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Spain’s intention is that during the Polish presidency the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician will be on the agenda of the General Affairs Council.

The Secretary of State for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, during his appearance before the Joint Committee for the European Union, in the Pri Room of the Congress of Deputies, on November 25, 2024, in Madrid (Spain). Photo: Jesús Hellín / Europa Press

Brussels – The Secretary of State for the European Union of the Government of Spain, Fernando Sampedro, has indicated this Tuesday that Spain hopes to make progress in the coming months on the recognition of Catalan, Basque, and Galician as official languages of the EU, pointing out that the government’s “intention” is for the matter to reach the table of European ministers before summer.

“I hope to have meetings with the Polish presidency during the month of February to be able to continue advancing and it will be a topic in which we can continue making significant progress in this semester,” he stated upon his arrival at the meeting in Brussels.

The Spanish Secretary of State has reiterated that the government maintains as a “priority” that the EU takes the step of recognizing co-official languages and will continue to defend this initiative “with great strength.”

Regarding the matter returning to the table of the European Affairs ministers, the Secretary of State has insisted that Spain’s “intention” is that during the Polish presidency, until June, the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician will be on the agenda of the General Affairs Council.

Spain sought during its rotating presidency of the Council to address the request to modify the EU regulation for the official status of Spain’s co-official languages in the EU, although the issue left the meetings once its presidency ended and briefly returned at the ministerial level in March 2024 when Spain presented a memorandum to the other EU partners to defend the specificities of the Spanish case and argue that the three co-official languages are part of Spain’s “national identity” and, therefore, require EU protection.

The Spanish President’s executive, Pedro Sánchez, committed to Junts to achieve the recognition of Catalan as an official language of the Union within the framework of the investiture agreement. 

Spain has offered to bear all the costs that the official status of the three languages would entail to prevent them from falling on the community coffers, as the EU rules initially foresee. (January 28)