Although there are still no guarantees that the Catalan becomes the twenty-fifth official language of the European Union, the Generalitat has imposed upon itself to see the situation with optimism and, at the very least, to try to convey all possible determination. President Pere Aragonès He appeared this Tuesday to address the matter and has promised to “redouble the diplomatic offensive” to achieve this official status. If achieved it would be “the most important step in the recognition of the Catalan language and culture”.
The appearance was not free. The excuse was the meeting she had with the delegates of the Generalitat abroad, but the objective was to take a position on the meeting that had taken place this Tuesday in Brussels in which the question of whether Catalan can be official has not been resolved. An unknown seasoned with a gesture that is not positive for the interests of the Government: for the first time two countries, Latvia and Lithuaniahave publicly shown their misgivings towards the officials.
Aragonese He has avoided this setback and has focused on promising that, if it is up to the Government, he will not remain. He has not specified how he will redouble this offensive, but the Generalitat She has been focused on this matter for more than a month, which she has defined as “foreign policy operation largest that has been done so far” by the Catalan administration. It has all its delegations in Europe mobilized and has promoted an advertising campaign with a presence in the 27 member states of the EU.
The president preferred to see the glass half full, remembering that, for now, there has been no “no official veto”. “We continue working. The doors are still open and we must continue rowing to finish this issue,” he stressed. He also warned that the Generalitat will be “demanding” with the Government to continue pressing to achieve the “alliances” necessary for the process to culminate successfully.
A political question
The Government’s speech is that there is no no impediment neither technical, nor economic, nor administrative to make official status a reality. “It is a political question,” said the president. The spokesperson for the Catalan executive, Patrícia Plajahad already explained this morning that, according to the Government’s calculationsthe EU allocates only “two euros” per inhabitant to the translation service -1,000 million from the community budget-, hence it concludes that adding one more language would have almost no economic impact.
This is one of The arguments which they have already sent to the EU countries through three channels: their permanent representatives to the Union –diplomats based in Brussels-; via embassies in Madrid and consulates in Barcelona and via their own government representatives in member countries. Now, according to the president, all this will have to be redoubled.
Expansion of ’embassies’
Beyond the Catalan issue, the president has also taken the opportunity to take advantage of the external action of his Government. First, for having recovered the dialogue with the EU after the presidencies of Puigdemont and Torra, when the inflammation of the ‘procés’ closed many doors. Then through the network of delegations abroad, known as ’embassies’, that the Generalitat has throughout the world.
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Thus, he recalled that, with the suspension of autonomy in 2017 by virtue of the application of article 155 of the Constitution, all the delegations and now, six years later, the Generalitat has not only reopened them all, but has more than ever.
Furthermore, Aragonès has warned that he will continue expanding these delegations looking especially at Asia and Africa and has set the next three objectives: southern africasouth-east Asia and the indian subcontinent. “Catalonia has the most powerful network of representation in the world of a nation without a state. They tried to stop it [con el 155]and now we have more delegations than ever,” he concluded.