Spain considering reaching EU Court on Member States' doubts on Catalan official status

Spain is considering appealing to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) the doubts raised by several member states regarding the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician languages.

Although the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, had already proposed such a measure to ask the high court to clarify the doubts, on Friday, Spain's secretary to the EU, Fernando Sampedro, suggested that the initiative would only go ahead with a positive ruling from the EU court, as first reported by the Catalan newspaper ARA, and later confirmed by the Catalan News Agency (ACN).

Sampedro's proposal is a response to the European Council's judicial advisors, who say that modifying the Union's treaties would be required to make Galician, Basque, and Catalan official languages.

Lawyers suggest that the official status of other languages clashes with Article 55 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which refers to the 24 languages (official ones) that treaties are written in.

They say that using Catalan in other organizations, such as the Committee of the Regions, is not the same as translating all the legal texts of the EU. This is why the Spanish government is considering linking the initiative to a favorable ruling from a court decision as a way to implement the measure, considering Germany's (and many other countries') reticence.

Germany and Spain's representatives, one led by Friedrich Merz's CDU (part of the European People's Party) and the other by Pedro Sánchez's Socialists, clashed during the debate held on Friday in Brussels, coinciding with the General Affairs Committee.

During the meeting, most of the member states spoke, with some raising their concerns on the subject. And although the meeting was very similar to the one seen in May, diplomatic sources expect for the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician to be, once again, part of the debate during September's gathering.

Spain's secretary for the EU, Fernando Sampedro, had accused the countries of "kidnapping" the initiative in the General Affairs Council and basing their opinions on "legal" or "financial" arguments to "delay" the vote.

"This proposal does not have any negative impact on any other Member State; therefore, we understand that it should be possible to greenlight it as soon as possible," Sampedro said.

The debate was scheduled to last around 45 minutes, it ended up lasting around one hour, and while it was the first topic on the agenda, it was relegated to the second point. The Danish rotating presidency of the Council of the EU decided to first vote on the multiannual EU budget.

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The Spanish government is pushing to make Catalan, Basque, and Galician official languages in Europe as it's part of the deal struck between the Socialist Party and Junts per Catalunya for the pro-independence group to support Pedro Sánchez's Prime Ministerial bid in 2023.

Spain's proposal needs unanimous support to be officially approved.

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