EU Parliament VP positive about Catalan language being official in chamber
Catalan socialist Javi López thinks using languages in Parliament will 'bring European institutions closers to citizens'
Javi López, the recently Catalan Socialist elected as one of the 14 vice presidents of the European Parliament, believes that the Catalan, Basque, and Galician languages will soon be available to use in the EU chamber.
After being elected as VP, López stated that the Socialists' presence in the parliament's bureau will be key for allowing the vote, as five out of the 14 members are of the Socialist party.
While the Parliament is independent, the Spanish government already submitted a request for other EU institutions to make these languages officials in the Union.
This took place during Spain's EU rotatory presidency in 2023, but the voting to approve those decisions was postponed multiple times and did not come through as it needed unanimous support of the 27 member states.
In the previous term in the parliament, the Socialists had four of the 14 seats. But now that number has increased and, in addition, liberal Ciudadanos is no longer in the European parliament, as they had influence on the decisions that the liberal VPs took.
López is certain that his presence among the vice-presidents is "strategically relevant to push forward policies like making Catalan an official language." Adding other languages to the official EU list would make "European institutions more representative and bring them closer to citizens," Javi López said.
"The strength of multilingualism in Spain is a strength for all of Europe," he added.
Other priorities of this legislature as stated by López include the need for the European Parliament "to be more sustainable and transparent in its mechanisms." "We want citizens to feel that the parliament is an institution close to them," Javi López concluded.