Multilingualism in the EP: Greens/EFA urge President Metsola to proceed with the inclusion of Catalan, Galician and Basque
Multinlingualism
During today’s European Parliament’s Bureau meeting, Members will discuss the inclusion of Catalan, Galician and Basque in the working languages of the committee meetings and the plenary sessions of the European Parliament. The Greens/EFA group calls on President Metsola to establish a definitive timeline for a decision on this issue.
Ernest Urtasun MEP, Vice-President of the Greens/EFA Group, comments:
“As a group, we call for the recognition of Catalan, Basque, and Galician as official working languages in the EU Parliament plenaries. This move is paramount to further linguistic diversity, cultural pluralism, and protect the rights of minority and regional language communities in Europe.
“We urge President Metsola to schedule a vote to ensure the European Parliament seizes this historic opportunity to promote linguistic diversity in the European Union.”
Diana Riba i Giner, EFA MEP, comments:
“It is puzzling that Catalan, the 14th most widely spoken language in the EU, is still not allowed to be spoken in the European institutions. Today, this House can take the first step in rectifying this historical injustice that millions of Europeans are suffering.
“For this reason, we also urge the Council to approve the proposal put forward by the Spanish government and accept Catalan as a new official language of the EU on September 19th.”
More:
The Spanish minister of Foreign Affairs sent a letter on the 17th of August to the Presidency of the EU Council formally asking Member States to add Catalan, Basque and Galician to the EU’s official languages. This will be debated in the next General Affairs Council on the 19th of September. Pending a decision by Council, the European Parliament should proceed with making Catalan, Basque and Galician working languages of the Parliament and allow Members to use them in Committee and plenary meetings. Two precedents exist for this case: the administrative arrangements signed by the Committee of the Regions, in 2005, and the Council, in 2006, in which the Spanish authorities allow languages that have constitutional status at national level, such as Catalan, Basque and Galician, to be used and interpreted in meetings held in the CoR or the Council.
Find here our press release on making Catalan an EU working language [August 2022].
