Albares informs the Catalan counselor for Foreign Affairs about the steps taken to make Catalan official in the EU

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, received this Thursday in Madrid the counselor of European Union and Foreign Affairs of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Jaume Duch, whom he informed about the latest results of the Government's efforts to achieve the officialisation of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the European institutions. According to sources familiar with the meeting informed The Diplomat, Albares and Duch also addressed other issues on the agenda in Catalonia, such as Casa Asia (whose headquarters are in Barcelona) and the Mediterranean. This is the second meeting between Albares and Jaume Duch, former spokesperson and director general of Communication of the European Parliament, since his inauguration as Minister of the Catalan Government presided over by the socialist Salvador Illa. At the first meeting, which took place on September 6, also at the Ministry's headquarters in Marqués de Salamanca, Albares and Duch agreed to "strengthen Catalonia's presence in international forums and to reinforce the Catalan language in Europe and in the world." The meeting on Thursday with Jaume Duch took place one day after Albares assured in Warsaw that his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, had promised him to include in the agenda of the current Polish Presidency of the EU Council the Spanish proposal to achieve official status for Catalan, Basque and Galician in European institutions. Spain's intention is to submit this issue to the "decision of all EU Member States" during the Polish Presidency and Sikorski has promised to "help as much as possible, putting this issue on their agenda," Albares declared during the joint press conference. "I want to thank him for his constructive spirit and his understanding of the identity of the Spanish nation, which is multilingual," he continued. Last December, Albares sent a letter to Radoslaw Sikorski in which he asked the Polish Presidency of the EU Council to take up the Spanish proposal to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official in the European institutions. The modification of the language regime of the EU requires the unanimous support of the 27 Member States. Some countries have expressed their doubts, and even their open opposition, for practical reasons (its economic cost and the problems of finding sufficient personnel) and for its possible impact on other Member States with minority languages. To convince the most reticent partners, Spain has relied on the “exceptionality” and “specificity of the Spanish case”, which cannot be extrapolated to other cases, and has committed to assuming the costs. The officialisation of Catalan, Basque and Galician within the European Union was one of the commitments made by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Catalan separatists of Junts to obtain their support in the vote of investiture. For this reason, the Government took advantage of the last Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU (second half of 2023) to introduce the issue in four consecutive meetings of the General Affairs Council (19 September, 24 October, 15 November and 12 December 2023), in two of which even Albares appeared, something unusual in this type of meeting. Despite this insistence, the four meetings concluded without any concrete decision, except for the commitment of the imminent Belgian Presidency to “advance the work on Spain's request during its mandate”. However, the question of languages was conspicuous by its absence from the agenda of all the General Affairs Councils of the Belgian semester. The topic also did not appear on the Council's agenda even once during the subsequent Hungarian Presidency.

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