The news that the minister Albares has requested by letter Council of the EU “inclusion” of Catalan in Regulation no. 1 of 1958 (which establishes what are the official and working languages of the EU) is good. It is the first step to achieve what we are asking the Spanish Government to do: Catalan, the 25th official language of the EU.
However, you have to be careful with the ad. First of all, because this is only the letter sent to the Council. From Platform for the Language we ask the Spanish Government to publish before the end of the month the memorandum in which it will detail the content of its request and that it should make it clear that what it is requesting is the incorporation of Catalan to the list of languages in article 1 of the Regulation, and nothing more than this. We warned about this because when the Zapatero government requested a status halfway between official status and non-recognition, it tried to regulate it through the same Regulations. Similar temptations must be avoided. In any case, yesterday Minister Albares declared that they would request the officiality and not something else, and that would be new and that is what we want.
Secondly, it is also necessary to be prudent because the official nature of Catalan must be accepted by unanimity. Some people suggest that France it can be a stumbling block. That it is not is the responsibility of the Spanish Government. States negotiate and exchange letters based on their interests, and if France raises high counterparts, it is Spain who must negotiate skilfully, just as it would do if Castilian depended on it. It was more difficult to reach an agreement for the European recovery funds and, since the political will was real, it was reached. Spain now has a greater negotiating force than usual because it holds the EU presidencyTherefore, from Plataforma per la Llengua we campaign to take advantage of this opportunity.
Possible reluctance
Finally, we must be prudent because we do not know how the reluctance from third parties. In the event that the Council alleges legal impediments -for example, affirming that only those mentioned in the article 55.1 of the EU Treaty– Spain should take this response to the CJEU, which is the competent institution to interpret European standards. Catalan and foreign jurists who have studied the issue consider that there is no legal basis to support this position and that, in any case, it would be based on a restrictive interpretation of the European linguistic regime.
Likewise, difficulties could also appear in the form of long transitory periods (as happened in the case of Irish) or that not only require the passage of time –but more conditions– to decay. You have to pay attention to all this.
And why should we celebrate the achievement of officialdom? Especially since he has real consequences. Many European regulations require that certain things be done in official languages. For example, in the labeling of health or food products. With the official status we will be able to demand that the big brands of yoghurts or cereals that we all have in mind label –also– in Catalan. As strange as this may seem to us, it is something perfectly normal in countries that respect their internal diversity, as in Swiss, where big chains like Migros label in French, German and Italian. It should be remembered that the Consumer Code It has already gone through the screening of the TC and the only stumbling block for its full application is the official status.
Most useful and necessary
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The officiality will imply more things. Without going any further, legal proceedings that reach Europe may be in Catalan, and European legal texts will have to be translated into Catalan. Likewise, knowing Catalan will become a merit in the European civil service. This is important not only because of the public presence of the language, its projection and its prestige, but also because it makes it most useful and necessaryand tightens the link between your knowledge and the social elevator.
For all these reasons, this should be an objective shared by all of us who want the Catalan to face the challenge of globalization. It is an aspiration that strengthens the European principle of multilingualism and does not subtract space from any other language. It’s a realistic and fruitful achievement which we can reach in a relatively short space of time. Let’s give it the importance it deserves.