EU postpones decision on making Catalan, Basque and Galician official after 'constructive debate'

The European Union has postponed a vote on making Catalan, Basque and Galician official languages.

After a majority of member states voiced doubts in a meeting of European and foreign affairs ministers on Tuesday morning, Spain decided not to put the proposal to a vote.

The proposal to legally change the language policy of the EU is an issue that requires unanimous support from the 27 member states.

Sources say the debate over making the languages official was "constructive" despite lasting only 40 minutes.

Some 20 countries spoke in the debate and asked for legal and cost analyses of the proposal.

The 27 member states agreed to return to the topic of making Catalan, Basque, and Galician official continental languages in future meetings.

Several European states had already asked for the process to be slowed down while doubts are resolved, while the Spanish government wanted to bring the initiative to a vote on Tuesday following the debate. 

The fact that the Spanish government has offered to take on the cost of making the three languages official has reassured some countries most reluctant to increase EU spending, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria. 

"This makes it easier for some governments to accept it," the sources say. The Spanish delegation has not yet said what the cost of making the three languages official would be. 

The Spanish acting foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, defended the need to certify the Catalan, Basque, and Galician languages as official languages in the European Union, saying they are "not minority languages" ahead of the meeting.

"Blackmail" 

Ciudadanos believes the Spanish government has made itself out to be "a fool" with the request to make the languages official in the EU.

After the vote was postponed, Cs MEP Adrián Vázquez claimed Pedro Sánchez was trying to "blackmail Spain" and said that "when a decision is postponed in Europe, it means that it is rejected."

Government to blame

During a press conference after the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the Catalan government blamed the decision to postpone the vote on Catalan to the Spanish government.

"Catalan should have been made official [in the EU], and it did not happen. This is because the Spanish government did not do its job on time," Patrícia Plaja, Catalan government spokesperson, said.

After 40 years of revindication, she added that it seems it has not been "enough" for the language to be official. However, she did celebrate the fact that Catalan was official in the Spanish congress for the first time.

EU ministers ask for more information

Minutes before starting the meeting, EU ministers answered questions regarding the use of Catalan, Basque, and Galician in the European Union. The vast majority consider that there are still some legal frameworks that should be addressed.

"We must know the consequences of our decisions. It is too soon to make a decision today," Anders Adlercreutz, Finnish foreign minister, said to journalists in Catalan.

His opinion was shared by the Croatian state secretary for Europe, ‍‍Andreja Metelko-Zgombić, who believes that it would be useful to have "the legal opinion and analysis of the legal service of the Council because we really do want to have an informed decision taken in such an important matter," she said to journalists.

"It is for us a completely unprecedented proposal, and we have to understand what all the consequences of this might be, money, budget, etc..." Martin Dvořák, Czech minister for European affairs, said, following the position of many of his counterparts.

Meanwhile, Jessika Roswall, the Swedish minister for European Union affairs, asked for time to have a more in-depth "investigation about the proposal, both when it comes to legal and financial questions," she said. Sweden has been one of the most vocal member states against the proposal. 

And time is also something the Slovakians are asking for. "Maybe we will need more time," Peter Mišík, the country's state secretary of foreign and European affairs, told reporters in the European Council building.

On the other hand, France said they are "always in favor of each person using their mother tongue," as Laurence Boone, the French state secretary for European affairs, said to journalists, "and that the country does not have any fear," of these languages being official."

Meanwhile, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said that the commission does not "have the competence to decide about the number of languages used, not only in one institution but in all institutions. It’s in the hands of the [European] Council," he said.