EFA MEPS on the official status of Catalan, Euskera and Galician

The speakers were 

•  Elsa Quintas Alborés, A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística (Galicia)

• Idurre Eskisabel Larrañaga, Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua (Basque Country)

• Elena Jiménez i Botías, Òmnium Cultural (Catalonia)

• Daniel Mundet, Plataforma per la Llengua (Catalonia)

• Davyth Hicks, European Language Equality Network (ELEN)

• David Minoves, CIEMEN( Catalonia)

•  Adrià Sisternes, Escola Valenciana (Valencian Country)

The EU Council will vote tomorrow 19th of September the proposal by Spain, for the inclusion of Catalan, Basque and Galician as full working EU official languages.

The EFA MEPs have been working on the official status of these languages for years and recently the European Parliament approved a report on the European audiovisual services law that included an amendment by EFA MEP Diana Riba I Giner called for all audiovisual products to be available through dubbing, subtitling and audio description in the official languages of each territory.

Ana Miranda, EFA MEP said: 

“We hope that the decision taken by the Council of the EU will be positive because Galician must be treated equally with the same respect as the other European languages"

"We are talking about linguistic rights and Galicians must be treated equally in Europe, because Europe cannot be understood without the diversity of nations and languages ​​of the European peoples"

EFA Group President Jordi Solé, said:

“The official status of Catalan in the EU is a long political and social demand that we now hope will become a reality.”

“It is an anomaly that a language spoken by 10 million European citizens is not official in the EU, while others with fewer speakers are. It is a question of equal rights and of accepting the diversity that really exists in the EU. “

“There are no excuses.”

Diana Riba i Gine, EFA MEP said:

“It is crucial that the Council approves Spain's petition to establish Catalan, Basque, and Galician as official languages in the EU.”

“ This move is vital, not only for these languages but also for Europe in order to place diversity and inclusion in its core. “

“We urge Spain to fully commit to this negotiation. Catalan, more spoken than 12 EU official languages, highlights the need for linguistic justice. Linguistic rights are human rights, and Europe must uphold them.”