Spain has threatened that it will not support the accession of new countries to the European Union, if the Catalan, Basque, and Galician languages do not receive the status of official EU languages. The subject now returns to the agenda, in the context where Spain is approaching the 2027 elections, when Pedro Sánchez announced that he intends to run for a new term.
Nevertheless, the unanimous support needed from EU states proved difficult to obtain, according to realitatea.md. Germany, Finland, and Italy are among the countries that oppose.
Fernando Sampedro, the Secretary of State for the EU of Spain, signaled a new diplomatic offensive on Thursday, establishing a link between Madrid’s demands on regional languages and the process of expanding the Union.
He explained to the journalists, at a ministerial meeting held in Ireland, that the expansion will mean that “we will have more official languages in the EU, but before this we hope that the expectations of 20 million Europeans can be fulfilled by reaching an agreement”.
Montenegro is the main favorite to become the next EU member state, being the candidate country that has made the greatest progress in terms of the reforms requested by Brussels.
Sampedro stated that Spain is among the strongest supporters of the expansion process, but emphasized that his country has been a member of the EU for 40 years and that Basque, Galician and Catalan languages are already considered official at the national level.
Madrid will officially insist on this matter at the next General Affairs Council meeting, on September 22. “We continue to address this issue with member states, systematically, at all levels,” Sampedro affirmed.