Spain pushes EU to recognise Catalan, Galician and Basque as official languages

The Council of General Affairs of the European Union is set to revisit the question of granting official EU status to Catalan, Galician and Basque, with the meeting agenda confirmed under Ireland’s rotating presidency. No formal vote is anticipated, but the discussion comes as Spain’s government, led by Pedro Sánchez, has raised the stakes, indicating it will withhold support for any further EU enlargement until the language demand is satisfied.

José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, urging European partners to reach unanimity on the matter, but he will not attend the EU session. Instead, the Spanish delegation will be headed by State Secretary for the EU, Fernando Sampedro. Meanwhile, Junts’ Josep Rius accused the executive of delaying the process and urged it not to shift responsibility onto others, while JxCat shifted from praising Albares to criticizing the government for not leveraging European Commission appointments to break the deadlock. Sources suggest the debate is unlikely to change the status quo, especially as Spain’s broader diplomatic standing is weakened after the recent Ceuta migration crisis.