Belgium is ready to continue work during its rotating EU presidency – from 1 January to 30 June 2024 – on Spain’s proposal to reform the EU linguistic system in order to include Catalan, Basque and Galician among the official languages. This is what was conveyed yesterday, according to diplomatic sources, by Belgian Foreign Minister Hajja Habib, during the session of the Public Affairs Council, which, like its predecessors, was short, about twenty minutes, and it ended without decisions or votes.
“The Belgian presidency has pledged to continue the work. Great progress has been made during the Spanish presidency and we hope to resolve all the issues related to costs, the legal discussion, and the question raised by Minister Albares about whether there is a precedent or not.” “Is it a unique solution,” Pascual Navarro, Minister of State for European Affairs, said at the conclusion of the council. “Spain is confident that the work will progress quickly.”
In total, according to the sources consulted, representatives of seven Member States participated – Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania, Sweden, Italy, Bulgaria and Slovenia – in addition to Spain. Despite the positive tone and commitment to continue working on the proposal, the conclusion remains the same as that reached since Foreign Minister José Manuel Albarez presented the initiative in September: no delegation has spoken out against it publicly, but all countries are considering the matter. “More work is necessary” before a decision of this depth can be made.
States ask for guarantees
The rest of the governments want guarantees – legal, political and administrative – before making a final decision on the matter. The European sources explained that “this is the line of all member states in general.” This hesitation and doubts forced the executive to Pedro Sanchez To abandon his intention to put the motion to a vote and use the recent meeting of European Affairs Ministers to make a brief assessment in which there was no change in positions.
The European Commission’s estimate of €132 million annual cost for the three languages that the government is pledging to undertake did not convince them. Swedish European Affairs Minister Jessica Roswall said: “Our view remains the same. We need a legal and economic analysis before making any decision. We have no new information.” “I’ve seen the accounts. It’s a lot of money,” she added when asked about the community’s analysis. His Finnish colleague Anders Adlerkreutz did not witness many developments that would change Helsinki’s position. He pointed out that “we have obtained an oral opinion from the legal department,” but “there are still matters that need to be clarified.”
The Finnish government considers that “linguistic diversity is a good thing as a general rule” and recognizes the need to recognize the Catalans, although it would like to see “the details and careful analysis of the consequences that this may have in the future.” The only person to publicly support the proposal yesterday was again Slovenian Minister Marko Stosin. He stressed that “Slovenia supports the Spanish proposal. We will be proactive regarding legal and financial issues.”
Yesterday was the last time that Spain, which will hold the presidency for six months until the end of the year, was able to include the discussion on the agenda of a ministerial meeting. From 2024 onwards, it will be the Belgian Presidency, and that country’s subsequent successor (the next Presidency is Hungary), that will decide whether the discussion has registered sufficient progress at the technical level to be included on the agenda before any proposal is raised. New political discussion. n
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