Spain in talks with Belgium to keep official status of Catalan on EU Council agenda

The Spanish government said it had already held talks with Belgium to keep the official status of Catalan on the agenda of the Council of the European Union.   

Spain did not hold a vote to grant official language status to Catalan, Galician and Basque in the European Union at Tuesday's General Affairs Council, as was previously expected.   

It was the last chance Spain had to approve the proposal during its presidency of the European Council, which will be handed over to Belgium in 2024.  

The Secretary of State for the EU, Pascual Navarro, stressed that efforts to change the EU's language regime "will continue" and underlined the "commitment" of member states to move the proposal forward.  

Spain's decision to withdraw the vote comes after several member states expressed doubts about the proposal. Changing the EU's language policy - including the introduction of new langauges - is an topic that requires unanimous support from the 27 member states. 

Catalonia: "Still work to be done" 

The Catalan government will also be keeping up its contacts and meetings with EU member states, especially with Belgium, so that the issue remains on the Council agenda. 

Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, Catalonia's minister for European and foreign affairs, Meritxell Serret, said there was "still work to be done."  

"The highest demands must be maintained on the Spanish government so that it continues to do everything in its powers," Serret said. 

For its part, the Catalan government will continue "with the maximum involvement and action" providing information and "reinforcing its capacity to help European institutions" have as much data as possible on costs and other factors.  

€132 million per year 

The European Commission estimated that formalizing Catalan, Basque and Galician as official languages would cost €132 million per year. 

Some countries have complained that the cost is too high, even though Spain said it would foot the bill. 

"We have checked the estimates and it is a considerable amount of money," said Swedish Foreign Minister Jessika Roswall. 

Meanwhile, Finnish Foreign Minister Anders Adlercreutz has called for linguistic diversity in the Union - an area where "progress is needed" - and supported the recognition of the Catalan language. 

Puigdemont's reaction 

Former Catalan president and current member of the European Parliament, Carles Puigdemont, said on Tuesday that the path to the Catalan language's official status is "irreversible." 

In a post to X, Puigdemont said that the Spanish government should go to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to assert "unapologetically" that it is not necessary to reform the Union treaties for a language to be official.  

Junts, the party led by Puigdemont, set the official recognition of Catalan in Europe as a condition for voting for Francina Armengol as the Speaker in Congress.  

In a message directed at the Socialists, Puigdemont called on them to "complete the outstanding tasks and confront those who oppose it."