EU countries resist Spain on making Catalan official language

The rejection of Catalan as an official language in Brussels stands to trigger a political crisis in Madrid.

In exchange for key support needed to form a new minority government in 2023, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez entered into an elaborate deal with Catalan separatist lawmakers in which he committed to getting Catalan, Basque and Galician recognized as official languages of the EU.

The move requires unanimous backing of the bloc’s 27 member countries, and Spanish officials spent the past two years lobbying European capitals for support. Next week, Spain intends to bring the issue to a vote in the General Affairs Council, the body that prepares periodic meetings of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels.

But documents summarizing this week’s meeting of the bloc’s ambassadors, seen by POLITICO, indicate serious doubts regarding Madrid’s bid.

While Belgium, Cyprus, Portugal, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia supported granting EU recognition to the Spain’s additional official languages, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany and Sweden backed Italy’s demands for “further clarity on the costs and legal implications of the move.”

Madrid has vowed to foot the bill for the potentially millions of euros to add the languages into the EU’s translation and interpretation framework. But Sánchez’s promise has not swayed all his colleagues in the Council of the EU.

Two EU diplomats, granted anonymity to discuss the confidential proceedings, confirmed the split among the two groups of capitals.

EU countries opposing the move are concerned about the impact adding official languages could have on the bloc’s bottom line. The EU currently spends more than €1 billion per year to translate all EU laws, proposals and decisions — past, present and future — into the bloc’s 24 official languages.

It’s unclear how much more cash would be required to incorporate Spain’s additional languages into that group. EU countries are skeptical that Madrid would pick up those costs indefinitely.

Political factors are also a major consideration. France, for instance, has a national policy against the recognition of domestic minority languages like Basque, Breton and Corsican.

Sánchez’s minority government has yet to pass a budget during his current term in office. The country is under pressure to allocate more public cash comply with NATO’s demands for increased defense spending.

A third EU diplomat told POLITICO that Spain argued to other member countries that adding the additional EU official languages would in turn allow it to unlock national funding essential for increasing Spain’s defense capabilities.

The government needs the favorable votes of the Catalan separatist Junts party to pass legislation, but the party’s members are increasingly irritated by a lack of progress on the language issue. It was a key part of the agreement inked with Sánchez’s Socialist Party in 2023.

Failing to fulfill that commitment could put further collaboration in jeopardy.

The Spanish government did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment, while a spokesperson for the Junts party declined to discuss the matter.