Catalan president defends amnesty law during official visit to Brussels

Catalan President Pere Aragonès will defend the amnesty law and the official status of the Catalan language in the European Union during an official visit to Brussels.

Aragonès arrived at the European Commission on Tuesday morning for a meeting with the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Italian Paolo Gentiloni.

At noon, he will meet with European Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Democracy and Demography, Croatian conservative Dubravka Šuica.

During a two-day visit to the Belgian capital, Aragonès will support the amnesty law pardoning those involved in the 2017 referendum push, which will be debated and voted on on Tuesday in the Spanish Congress.

"We are fully committed to the European project and we are doing our utmost to position the interests of Catalonia in European institutions," Catalan foreign minister Meritxell Serret said ahead of the visit.

Catalan: the next official EU language?

Another issue on the table will be the official status of the Catalan language in the European Union.

Last year, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez tried to push through the recognition of Catalan as an official EU language during his presidency of the Council of the European Union.

However, the proposal faced opposition from some countries and was not approved.

Belgium, which currently holds the EU Council presidency, plays a key role in making the language official.

The Belgian ambassador to Spain, Geert Cockx, said in early January that the official status of Catalan was one of the issues on which the Belgian EU presidency wanted to "move forward". 

However, he said they were waiting for Spain and the European Commission to clarify the "financial and legal consequences."