The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed this Monday the renewed Agreement with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which will extend the use of Spanish co-official languages to its members’ interventions in plenary sessions.
The State Secretary for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Secretary-General of the EESC, Isabelle Le Galo, signed this renewed Agreement at the Committee’s headquarters in Brussels.
The Spanish co-official languages are now used routinely in most European institutions, with the same ease as they are used in Spain in both legislative chambers, as well as in all aspects of public life and administration in the Autonomous Communities with several official languages, in their regional governments and parliaments, provincial councils, and city councils.
The possibility that Spanish representatives in the EESC will now have of speaking in plenary sessions in the co-official Spanish languages is also standard practice in the sessions of the Council of the EU and the European Committee of the Regions, under existing agreements.
“The recognition of these languages as official languages of the EU and the promotion of their use in the institutions of the European Union are a priority for the Government of Spain, in order to achieve the goal of bringing our multilingual national identity to Europe and bringing the institutions closer to citizens,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release.
