Will it be approved that Catalan be official language in the European Union before the investiture of Pedro Sánchez? With the date of the debate of October 24 marked in red on the calendar, this is one of the hot folders agreed between the PSOE and Junts with which the socialists are working against the clock in Brussels. Knowing the complexity involved in obtaining unanimity from all member states, the objective is to ensure that, at a minimum and as happened on September 19, don’t be banned by the General Affairs Council of the European Union. But, in case the road goes awry or takes a long time, the socialists are focusing efforts in another parallel path so that at least it is possible use of Catalan in plenary sessions in a shorter period of time than that usually applied when a language is declared official.
This issue has been at the center of the meeting held by the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illawith the vice president of the European Parliament, Marc Angel, this Wednesday in Brussels. Coordinated with Pedro Sánchez in the negotiation of the investiture, the head of the opposition in Catalonia seeks to exhibit – and lead – the commitment of his group to the promotion of Catalan in the institutions demanded by the independentists, following in the footsteps of the Congress of Deputies and that Carles Puigdemont has demanded to be paid “in advance.”
The leader of the PSC has taken advantage of his trip to the European capital to project the efforts of his party with the Catalan party, but also to set the limits of how far the socialists are willing to go: no referendum or agreement of clarity for many formulas that the advisors of the ‘president’ propose Pere Aragonesand yes to a “coherent evolution” of the commitment to de-judicialization, but leaving aside the ground with Sumar’s amnesty proposal. A word, ‘amnesty’, which Illa, unlike Sánchez, has not yet pronounced.
A simple majority is not easy
The socialists They are insisting that the European Parliament table put it to a vote before the end of the year that, although it is not yet considered an official language, MEPs can use Catalan in parliamentary debates. It is, in fact, about reactivating one of the pacts that reached the PSOE with ERC at the dialogue table a little over a year ago. “We have insisted that that vote will be done soon and the forecast is that it will be in a few months”, assure socialist sources, who defend that this route prospers “at the same time” that work continues for the officialdom. However, after the Table already preliminarily addressed the issue on the 11th September and postponed the vote, there is still no date for the matter to be put back on the agenda.
The first step is to see what happens on the 24th, since obtaining official status on equal terms with the other 24 languages is a rank higher than that used in plenary sessions with a translation system. But the socialists admit that, in parallel, they are working on a scenario that they see as more achievable and quick to apply over time. They do not hide, however, that obtaining a simple majority in the Board vote It’s not an easy task either.. The president, Roberta Metsola, is part of the popular group and that is, in itself, a brake for this melon to face hastily. And of the 14 vice presidents, five are socialists. They take for granted the support of the representative of the Green Group and that of the Left Group, but one vote missing -they need 8 to be a majority- and the rest of the vice presidents are popular, conservative or liberal and have positioned themselves, for now, against. What they are looking for is for at least one of them to abstain, enough to have more ‘yeses’ than ‘noes’.
But no matter how difficult it is, they say, they will give up their attempt. In fact, it is a path that they defend that can be followed in parallel with that of the officialdom because it can take time to apply. In the case of the irishthe last one to obtain this rank, it was six years. Therefore, they consider that, even in the case of reaching official status, the transitional situation until its full deployment could be that Catalan is already spoken in the interventions in plenary sessions.
Seventh commissioner in seven years
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How the dialogue with the pro-independence parties for Sánchez’s investiture is progressing is the topic that arouses the most interest among the European leaders who have met with Illa, who has also met with the internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton. He is the seventh leader at this level with whom he has spoken in the last two years within his agenda for Catalonia to “recover” presence in the European institutions and with him he has addressed issues such as European funds and the promotion of Catalan industry above of the table.
The European Parliament is abuzz with leaders these days because the European Week of Regions and Cities is being celebrated between October 9 and 12. In fact, Illa’s marathon agenda has included a meeting with the president of the Committee of the Regions, Vasco Cordeiro, with whom Aragonès has not met yet. The leader of the PSC has crossed paths by surprise with the former PP minister and MEP José Manuel García-Margallo. “What, how are you handling it?” She asked him informally in reference to the contacts for the investiture. “Discreet work and political craftsmanship,” Illa prescribes every time he is asked how the conversation is progressing.