Inclusion will have to keep waiting. The EU foreign ministers or European issues have re -postponed this Friday the issue that is being discussed in Brussels almost two years claiming, despite the new report presented by Spain to dissipate doubts, which these persist, especially financial and legal. Although it is still far from ensuring the unanimity required, Spain considers that there has been “one more step” on an “inalienable and irreversible” path.
“We know that it is a sensitive and symbolic issue” for Spain, but “there are still many concerns in the issue of Spanish languages, in budgetary, and also legal matters,” he explained at the end of the General Affairs Council (CAG) in Brussels the Minister of European Affairs of Denmark, Marie Bjerre, whose country holds this seventh the presidency of the European shift.
Several ministers had already made it clear on their arrival that, although Spain has returned to send a memorandum to all capitals answering the concerns raised, there are still open questions. As Finland, whose Foreign Minister Joakim Strand said that “there are still issues” without resolving, especially in legal matters. “There are many doubts about this matter between the Member States and I think there are certain legal doubts,” the Polish head of European Affairs, Adam Szlapka.
According to diplomatic sources, during the discussion of the Spanish proposal, held behind closed doors, more than half of the countries took the floor. Even a dozen said to have doubts. No one argues, they say, the reasons for the Spanish proposal and how much this issue matters to the Spanish government. The ministers listened to the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Fernando Sampedro, during the session dedicated to the point, which lasted just under an hour. But it was not enough. “Many countries ask for more clarifications, I think we will need more discussions,” said Swedish Minister, Jessica Rosencrantz.
It is not a surprise that the Spanish proposal will continue to be dilated. Several countries had insisted from the eve of the meeting this Friday in Brussels that they do not consider sufficient information provided by Spain, although it sent a new memorandum to respond to the concerns raised in the last meeting in which the proposal was discussed, at the end of May. For some in addition, “it is not the right time” for this discussion, as the head of the Luxembourg Diplomacy, Xavier Bettel, said that he said he was concerned about the message that this would send to Europeans about the priorities of the twenty -seven: “We have needed days to agree on the sanctions (Russia), we are still unable to make decisions about Israel and a stop the fire to Palestine Be the right time if we are not able to agree other things, ”he questioned.
Sampedro has reiterated Spain’s willingness to continue clarifying doubts, although he pointed out that these may have a political or legal political origin (a good part of the reluctant have conservative governments) and has urged other states to “not kidnap” a priority issue for one of their partners. “What cannot be is to kidnap or delay debates unnecessarily,” he warned. “This is a priority for Spain, a priority that Spain will not abandon,” he added.
The Spanish government sent in the past days the European capitals a new memorandum that provides “additional clarifications about the context, the strict and clear criteria to avoid precedents, Spain’s commitment to cover all costs, the operational sequence and the legal solidity of the proposal”.
With a view to countries that are afraid that the acceptance of Catalan, Basque and Galician feels a precedent that could open the door to other European minority languages, such as Russ interruption “and with said status already enshrined in the Constitution” before the beginning of the formal negotiations of access to the EU. ” They must also be working languages in the two legislative chambers or that have been used in European institutions for almost 20 years, as Spanish co -official languages do through administrative agreements signed since 2005.
In addition, Spain insists that it will run with all the expenses of its official recognition, that a first estimate estimated at 132 million euros per year. Although under governments of diverse sign Spain has always assumed the translation costs of the administrative agreements signed with almost all European institutions (except the Eurocamara, where conservatives have always stopped it), several capitals have expressed new doubts about the Spanish commitment to finance the co -official languages if there was a change in the Moncloa.
To end these questions, the new Spanish proposal is willing to include a new specific article in the regulation that certifies that commitment to cover expenses. Asked why a more updated report is not made with the forecast of the expenses that this step will imply, as some countries insist, Sampedro indicated this Friday that this is a matter of the commission and that in principle that step will take place when the Spanish proposal is approved. “The Commission will be prepared to present another type of analysis more updated when the proposal has been adopted,” he explained, as he has denied, again, that treaties have to be changed to include Spanish co -official languages. “It is clear that there is no need for a review of the treaties,” the Secretary of State insisted upon his arrival.
The Government has also confirmed its intention to make this transition gradually, following the “sequence of the Irish”, which also began its path in 2005, but with more success than Spain: the Irish or Gaelic became an official language of the EU in 2007, although it put a “repeal” that limited the amount of material published by the EU institutions that could be translated into the Irish. This exceptionality only began to be gradually reduced from 2015, until in 2022 the Irish acquired the complete European language status, as well as the other 22 also currently recognized.
“We consider that this proposal has no negative impact for any other Member State. Therefore, we consider that it must be possible to approve it shortly,” said Sampedro, who despite the reluctance of several states has been convinced that the Spanish proposal, almost two years after being launched, is going.
“After this discussion, I am sure we will be closer than ever of the next approval of the Spanish proposal, but we do not see any other alternative,” he said.
“We will get it”
The first vice president of the Government, María Jesús Montero, has been “convinced” that Europe will endorse the officiality of Spanish co -official languages: “I am convinced that we will get it. Not today, but another day,” he said in an informative contact with journalists at the Menéndez Pelayo International University (Santander).
The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, on the other hand, has affirmed that he would have liked that the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, had signed the letter that he and the Lehendakari Imanol Pradales sent the Foreign Ministers of the EU countries asking for the green light of the official.
In an act organized by The Faro de Vigothe Catalan president has defended that this issue is “very important”, for being a symbol of plural Spain. “I would have liked to sign it. But the reason for the decision he has made, he has to explain it. This theme of languages is a very important issue. Very important. Because it is the symbol of the Spain we want,” he defended.
