Spain's Foreign Minister says Catalan to become EU official language 'sooner or later'

Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares has said that the Catalan language will become an official language across the European Union institutions "sooner or later."

The minister said that negotiations with skeptical countries are "ongoing".

"I cannot set up a date, but I can say that sooner or later, Catalan, Basque, and Galician will be official languages in the European Union," he said in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio radio station.

He asked for "discretion" and said that they have several meetings with those countries that have shown some "doubts."

Albares said that he has defended the view that Catalan is a language spoken by 10 million people, more than some current official languages within EU institutions.

Although the minister did not directly address them, he referred to the conservative People's Party in Spain for pressuring conservative-led countries to block the process.

"It hurts me, as this decision is also going against Spaniards," Albares said.

The long-stalled proposal requires unanimous support from all 27 member states.

The request comes from a deal between Catalan pro-independence Junts party and the Socialists to see Socialist Francina Armengol elected as Congress speaker. 

Listen to our podcast from October 2023 to learn more about the origins of the efforts to make Catalan an official European language.