Albares calls for the support of the future Danish Presidency for the co-official Spanish languages

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met this Thursday in Madrid with the Minister of European Affairs of Denmark, Marie Bjerre, with whom he addressed the challenges of the next Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU, including the officialization of the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the European institutions. “We have addressed the importance of strengthening European competitiveness, the enlargement of the EU and EU-CELAC relations,” declared Albares through social networks after the bilateral meeting, which took place at the ministerial headquarters of the Palacio de Viana. During the meeting, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Albares stressed that the Danish Presidency, which will begin on July 1, will be “crucial to” advance in matters such as the Multiannual Financial Framework, Enlargement, competitiveness or relations between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). He also warned of the need to improve European competitiveness on the basis of the triple green, digital and social transition, “while preserving fundamental freedoms and equal conditions”. Albares also highlighted the “excellent” state of bilateral relations, with an “undoubted complementarity in a large number of issues”: climate change and energy transition, social issues, gender equality, the rule of law, industrial policy, European competitiveness and defence of multilateralism. The minister also recalled the Declaration on green energy, signed in 2023 by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, and advocated a common approach to the green agenda that would allow for the exploration of synergies in renewable hydrogen or wind farms, including cooperation in research and development to promote new technologies. Back to co-official languages On the other hand, Albares highlighted the support of the current Polish Presidency to advance European linguistic diversity and took advantage of his meeting with Marie Bjerre to request a constructive approach from Denmark, as well as support during the Danish Presidency to consolidate Catalan, Basque and Galician as official languages of the European Union. On January 29, José Manuel Albares said in Warsaw that his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, had committed to making Catalan, Basque and Galician official in the European institutions on the “agenda” of the current Presidency of the Council, which Poland has held since January 1. 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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