Interview with Izaskun Bilbao (PNV) on Radio Euskadi on August 18, 2023

The PNV MP Bilbao has confirmed the agreement between the Government of Spain and the Catalan parties to promote that the Basque language is official in the European Union “It is news to be happy about, although it comes a little late.”

Interviewed on Radio Euskadi’s “Boulevard” programme, Bilbao recalled that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights “prohibits discrimination based on language, race or national identity”. “And this is what has happened so far with Basque, Catalan and Galician,” he lamented.

For this reason, it considers that the possible recognition of all the official languages ​​of the Spanish State in Europe “is a recognition of the principle of non-discrimination and from respect for the Charter of Fundamental Rights“.

The motto of the European Union is ‘United in diversity’. States must recognize and integrate their own diversity,” he stressed.

Asked about the difficulty for the Basque language to get final approval from all member states, MEP jeltzale has defended that “if Gaelic is recognized by the Council of Europe within two years for their presence in the European institutions, I hope that we can have the same future and that there will not be too many obstacles.”

The MEP recalled that a report was approved in 2013 declaring the existence of a binding legislation for minority languages official throughout the European Union and that ten years later a new report concludes that symbolically all institutions agree that they are official languages ​​and should be recognised, but from a practical point of view “they didn’t apply it”.