The very day that the government of Pedro Sanchez postpones indefinitely the approval of the spending ceiling in the hope of obtaining the support of Junts, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albaressent a new letter to the popular Roberta Metsola in which he asks her to “personally address” the use of Catalan in the European Parliament to please Carles Puigdemont.
In fact, the recognition of Catalan as an official language of the EU was one of the “down payments” that the former Catalan president (on the run in Brussels since October 2017) had demanded from Pedro Sanchez in exchange for your support. However, This request was eventually abandoned due to the lack of support among Member States. In fact, the last time the Spanish request was debated in the General Affairs Council was last March.
This is why Albares chose to test a different and theoretically simpler way: sign an administrative agreement with the European Parliament so that Catalan, Galician and Basque can be used in plenary sessions in Brussels and Strasbourg. However, the European Parliament table (which brings together the president and the 14 vice-presidents) did not even put the issue to a vote due to lack of sufficient support.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs defends in his new letter that the legislature which is opening “constitutes a privileged opportunity to give new impetus to the signing of an administrative agreement to be used in the Parliament of Catalan, Basque and Galician“.
“This is a priority issue for my country and a essential element of Spanish national identityinherent in its fundamental political and constitutional structures, respect for which is also protected by Article 4.2 of the Treaty on European Union,” Albares says.
