At least seven capitals have expressed concerns about the financial and political consequences of the initiative, which Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez links to defense funding issues.
The refusal to recognize Catalan as an official language of the European Union could trigger a political crisis in Madrid. In 2023, to secure support for forming a new minority government, Sánchez struck a complex deal with Catalan separatist lawmakers, committing to obtain official EU language status for Catalan, Basque, and Galician.
This initiative requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states. Spanish authorities have spent 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 responsible for preparing periodic meetings of EU leaders in Brussels.
However, documents summarizing this week’s meeting of EU ambassadors, obtained by POLITICO, reveal serious doubts about Madrid’s proposal.
While Belgium, Cyprus, Portugal, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovakia support expanding the EU’s official languages to include Spain’s regional languages, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, and Sweden back Italy’s demands for “further clarity on the costs and legal implications” of the initiative.
