Albares calls for a greater geographical balance in the agendas of the EU Foreign Affairs Councils

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, held a meeting this Friday with the ambassadors of the European Union countries accredited in Spain, before whom he again raised the Spanish proposal for the official status of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the European institutions and to whom he proposed a greater geographical balance in the agendas of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) in order to improve the European response to global crises and geostrategic problems. During the meeting, according to a press release from the Foreign Ministry, Albares discussed with the ambassadors the main challenges facing the rotating Presidency of the Council, which has been held by Poland since 1 January. He also called for European unity in the face of the major challenges to EU security, such as Russian aggression, disinformation and instability in the Middle East, and demanded that the European Union work to speak with “one voice” and act as “a truly global actor, coherent and quick to react to challenges”. Furthermore, the minister asked that the agendas of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) maintain a greater geographical balance in order to be able to address crises or strategic debates that also deserve a European response. In this regard, Minister Albares also urged the European Union to cultivate its relationship with its Southern Neighbourhood, taking advantage of the creation of the post of EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean, and to strengthen its ties with Latin America and the Caribbean in a year in which the EU-CELAC Summit will be held. Languages The meeting with the ambassadors took place just one week after Albares' meeting with his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, to discuss Spain's priorities for the Polish presidential semester that ends on 30 June, before the baton is passed to Denmark. In this context, and as on so many other occasions, Albares again raised the issue of the official status of the Spanish co-official languages in the European Union, a priority of the Government of Spain at the community level. In this regard, the Minister once again took advantage of the meeting to ask the ambassadors to convey to their governments the social, political and constitutional reality represented by the co-official Spanish languages and the firmness of the Spanish Government's commitment to the objective of their official status in the European Union.

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