Could Catalan become EU's 25th official language? 

Catalan has been spoken for around 1,000 years, but, in a sense, September 19, 2023 was a particularly significant day in the language's modern history. 

In Madrid, Catalan MPs spoke in Catalan without fear of being ejected from the Spanish Congress, while in Brussels, on the very same day, ministers from 27 countries discussed the possibility of making Catalan an official language in the European Union. 

Spain, which currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, sent a letter to the bloc's other member states on August 17 requesting that Catalan, Basque and Galician be made official EU languages. 

Catalan in particular is to be prioritized, as Vicent Climent-Ferrando, a researcher at Pompeu Fabra University, explained to Catalan News. 

"The [acting] Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs already said that, given that Catalan has more speakers and that it is the region that has really pushed for Catalan to become official, they will start with Catalan." 

"It's going to be very tough, it's going to be complicated, but not impossible," Climent-Ferrando warns. 

"Political maneuvering" 

Catalan pro-independence parties negotiated the proposal to make Catalan official in the EU during talks with Spain's Socialists following July's inconclusive general election. 

With Spain on board, now the other 26 countries must be convinced, as stipulated in EU rules. 

"Regulation 1/1958 regulates language issues at the EU level, and that requires unanimity. Unanimity means that all 27 member states have to say yes," Climent-Ferrando says. 

He believes it will take "a lot of political maneuvering." 

'Say Yes' 

Catalan language NGO Plataforma per la Llengua has launched a campaign, 'Say Yes', to convince doubting minsters and prime ministers.   

Sports stars including Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, formerly of FC Barcelona, and trail runner Kílian Jornet have joined the campaign.  

While the meeting in Brussels on September 19 ended with the EU postponing a decision after "constructive debate," Plataforma per la Llengua president Òscar Escuder says the campaign will continue. 

"The campaign, obviously, will keep going until we get this yes done. We have lots of arguments in favor of it, so we hope that they listen to our arguments and they finally say yes," he told Catalan News. 

The organization is publishing a daily grievance that highlights how Catalan not being official at the EU impacts Catalan-speakers. 

"Pandora's box" 

Certain countries like Sweden, Finland and France have expressed concern over the potential cost of adding to the bloc's 24 existing official languages, or that it may have lead to a flood of similar requests from other countries. 

As Climent-Ferrando says, "linguistic minorities in Europe have never been a top issue on the EU agenda." 

"I think many countries will fear that if Catalan starts, or if the regional and minority languages in Spain start, it will open a Pandora's box of EU officialdom." 

Catalan language NGO Plataforma per la Llengua, however, say such concerns are unwarranted. 

While emphasizing that every EU citizen "should have the same linguistic rights," Escuder says the "fear of 25 more languages coming is not founded in anything real right now." 

As for costs, Plataforma per la Llengua says it would amount to "two or three cents a year per citizen."  

"I don't think that's a strong argument against making an official language of 10 million Europeans," Escuder says, referring not only to Catalan speakers in Catalonia, but also in places like the Valencian region, the Balearic Islands, parts of Aragon, Northern Catalonia in present-day France, Andorra, and the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. 

Catalan in Congress 

EU recognition, if it does eventually happen, would follow the recent approval for the use of Catalan, Basque, Galician and other languages in the Spanish Congress. 

For Escuder, this is well overdue, coming as it does four and a half decades on from Spain's transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco. 

"It's coming 45 years late, but it's a positive situation that if a state has different languages, their citizens have different languages, that those languages are represented with absolute normality in their institutions."  

It's "a step forward" Escuder says, before adding that there are many more steps to take, in the judiciary, in health care, and, of course, at the European Union.