The debate on the officialization of the three languages returns to the table of the General Affairs Community Council this Wednesday with a revised Spanish proposal.
The debate about the officialization of Basque, Catalan and Galician in the European Union will return to the table of the Community’s General Affairs Council this Wednesday with a revised Spanish proposal that will attempt to allay fears that the possible adoption of the three co-official languages will open the door to an avalanche of similar requests.
The revised proposal adds an annex emphasizing that the three languages meet specific requirements that would ensure that their inclusion in the community’s language regime would not create a precedent compared to other states with minority languages.
The appendix points out factors such as all three are “originating in a Member State”have constitutional recognition in that Member State and its working languages in the national parliament of an EU country, a change that came in Spain precisely as a result of the investiture negotiations after the July 23 elections.
They also point to the existence of administrative agreements dating back more than ten years allowing these languages to be used in various institutions of the European Union, to the fact that the European Treaties have been translated into three languages and that Spain has committed to accept everything costs “arising from its use in the institutions of the Union”.
These are arguments in which the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albareshe emphasized during the two previous meetings of the General Affairs Council in which the Spanish proposal was discussed and in which the consensus of the Twenty-seven was not reached due to reluctance about the costs and practical consequences of that decision.
A diplomatic source from a state that is cautious about the Spanish proposal said that Spain sent the proposal to its partners last night and only in Spanish, so they only had access to a text to analyze today. Moreover, he adds that the proposal still does not include “any form of legal, financial and practical impact analysis.”
For these two reasons, he does not believe that this is a proposal that Ministers can “seriously consider” at next Wednesday’s meeting and believes that the issue will be discussed again at the meeting of December General Affairs Councilthe last to lead the Spanish presidency.
Source: EITB
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