Features
Marga Payola
INTERNATIONAL COORDINATOR OF PLATAFORMA PER LA LLENGUA
“We will only accept full official status for Catalan”
“whoever asks for more information is just putting obstacles in the way. This confirms that it is a purely political issue”
In August 2023, Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel Albares sent a letter to the Council of the European Union requesting that Catalan, Basque and Galician be considered as official languages of the European Union. A year and a half later, little progress has been made.
Did you foresee the issue being so complicated?
First of all, let’s remember that Catalan is the 13th most spoken native language in the European Union. Until now, whenever a request has been made to make a language official, the Council has approved it without much problem. It had never taken so long. Technically, gaining official status is simple and easy, but political will is needed. And that is currently lacking.
Which governments are against it?
The states with reservations are the same ones that had them at the start, such as Sweden and Finland. We have campaigned a lot in these countries, with the likes of Pep Guardiola and Aitana Bonmatí, to try to impact public opinion, but so far there has been no change in position. We believe that these are governments that are close to the Popular Party. One day someone from the PP should explain why they oppose the official status of Catalan, considering that it does not go against the official status of Spanish.
Experts like Vicent Climent-Ferrando say that Catalan gaining official status will be “complicated, if not impossible”.
Everything is more complicated when other issues get mixed up with it, but gaining official status is simple. All legal advice is that there’s no need to change any treaties; it just needs to be approved by the Council. Trusted sources confirm to us that no more information is needed and that whoever asks for more is putting obstacles in the way. This confirms that it is a purely political issue.
What is the current situation?
The issue is stuck. Everyone is waiting for Spain to ask for it to be put on the agenda. The issue has seen no progress because the necessary effort to do so has been lacking. If Spain asked for it to be discussed in the Council, member states would not oppose it.
Is there any optimism that the language will achieve official status?
It’s a proposal that has broad social consensus in Catalonia and the European Union. A CEO survey last year found that 85% of Catalan speakers support official status. And in a survey by the European Commission last year, 84% of Europeans were in favour of better protecting the languages of Europe, and the highest protection is official status. What we want is to be normal EU citizens, linguistically speaking, just like the Finns, the Swedes, or the Slovenes. If the EU wants to be credible in defending human rights, it must also recognise linguistic rights. And this implies recognising the official status of Catalan. I’d also like to add that, as stated in articles 21 and 22 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, there can be no discrimination on grounds of language. The EU has is obliged to respect the linguistic diversity of its citizens. In this sense, recognising the official status of Catalan would achieve compliance with these principles and we’re sure that we will achieve it
Is there a risk of achieving a partial, hybrid agreement?
There is this risk. We understand that the use of Catalan would only be allowed in plenary sessions in parliament. It would be necessary to get clarification on this issue to see if Catalan could be used in committees, where issues are debated in detail and in depth. However, adding Catalan to the European Parliament’s plenary session would only be a technical issue. In addition, the cost would be very low, because some Spanish interpreters are already Catalan speakers. What I can assure you is that Plataforma per la Llengua will not accept anything less than full official status for Catalan.
interview Catalan language
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