Albares asks Metsola again for the use of the co-official languages in the European Parliament “without talking about deadlines”

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, discussed this Wednesday in Brussels Spain's request for an administrative agreement to be adopted that allows the use of the three Spanish co-official languages in the European Parliament, but there was no talk of “deadlines”, according to Albares himself at the end of the meeting. During the meeting, which lasted around twenty minutes, Albares and Metsola spoke about the issue of co-official languages, about the new political cycle in the EU and about the Dana catastrophe in Spain and the assistance mechanisms offered by the EU. As he himself explained, the minister conveyed to Metsola his intention to “make every effort possible” so that “all Spanish MEPs, whatever party they belong to”, join the Spanish request in favour of the use of Catalan, Basque or Galician in the plenary sessions of Parliament. These are languages “spoken by millions of Spaniards” and, in the case of Catalan, he specified, “we are talking about ten million Spaniards” for whom “expressing themselves daily and only in Catalan (…) is part of their idiosyncrasy”. “Once again it has been highlighted that this is not a political issue in the sense of partisan politics, but rather it is an issue of Spanish national identity”, which “is multilingual, as stated in our Constitution”, he continued. “This is how life is lived day to day in the cities and towns of many autonomous communities in Spain and this is how life is lived with total normality and naturalness both in the Spanish Congress and Senate”, he added. Last September, Albares asked Metsola - in a letter requesting the meeting - to bring to the European Parliament's Bureau a proposal for an administrative agreement that would allow the use of the three co-official languages in the European Parliament, as is already the case in other community institutions, with the argument that more than 20 million people live in the regions where these languages are spoken and that the three co-official languages are recognised by the Constitution and are working languages in both Congress and the Senate. Currently, there are already "administrative arrangements" within the Council and the European Commission that allow the translation of many of their documents into the co-official languages and the Government has been demanding that the same be done in the European Parliament as well. In any case, Albares insisted on Wednesday that no deadline has been agreed for this. "We have not talked about deadlines," said the minister, who insisted that Spain will keep the matter on the table "as long as necessary," since "it does not depend on who is in the Government." In this regard, Albares asked the People’s Party (opposed to this initiative) not to turn this issue into a “political dispute” because it is a matter of “national identity” and the use of the three co-official languages in the plenary sessions of the European Parliament “should not be seen as a victory of some Spaniards over others”. “The co-official languages that are in our Constitution are used normally every day in many autonomous communities, also by members of the People`s Party”, he recalled. The leader of the People`s Party himself, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, “has expressed himself on many occasions in Galician”, he added. “I am conveying this to the Spanish People’s Party and I will convey it to them again and also to the European People’s Party”, continued Albares, who assured that he has “an outstretched hand” with the European People´s Party and with the Spanish PP to move forward on this issue. For the moment, any decision in this regard depends on the report on the impact of the recognition of the three languages in the plenary sessions of the European Parliament, commissioned last October by Metsola herself to the Working Group of the Bureau on Citizens' Language and Linguistic Services, created in September, before Albares' letter, and which includes five vice-presidents of the European Parliament, including the Spaniards Esteban González Pons (PP) and Javi López (PSC). Official status of languages This initiative is independent of the one initiated last summer by the Government to obtain the support of Junts for the investiture of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the election of Francina Armengol as President of the Congress. At that time, Albares asked the EU Council to include Catalan, Basque and Galician in the linguistic regime as official languages. For this to be possible, unanimity of the Twenty-Seven is necessary, something that has not yet been achieved due to the reluctance of some partners, who fear that it could set a precedent for other minority languages. In this regard, Albares assured this Wednesday that Spain will try to promote the issue during the next Polish presidency of the EU Council, which begins in January. “We are going to maintain this debate within the Council for as long as necessary until we achieve this unanimity. It is not a problem of this or that presidency, but of achieving unanimity,” he said.

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