At least seven European Union countries have expressed serious reservations about Spain's proposal to recognize the Catalan language as an official language within the EU, documents reviewed by "Politico" show.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has tied the initiative to a political agreement reached in 2023 with Catalan separatists in exchange for their support for forming a minority government. It also provides for the recognition of Basque and Galician as official EU languages. However, this requires unanimity among the 27 member states.
While Belgium, Cyprus, Portugal, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia support the request, countries such as France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Croatia and the Czech Republic are demanding more clarity on the financial and legal implications. Italy is particularly vocal in its skepticism.
Spain has promised to cover translation and administration costs, which could run into millions of euros, but several countries doubt Madrid's ability to shoulder this burden in the long term. The EU already spends more than 1 billion euros a year on translations into 24 official languages.
Political factors also play a role - France, for example, traditionally does not recognize minority languages such as Basque and Corsican. At the same time, Spain faces domestic political pressure. The Junts party, on whose support the Sánchez government depends, is pushing for the agreement to be implemented. The lack of progress could jeopardize future legislative cooperation.
According to diplomatic sources, Spain argues that the eventual recognition of the languages would unlock domestic funding needed to increase the military budget in line with NATO requirements.
A vote on the issue is expected at the next General Affairs Council meeting, but the prospect of unanimity remains uncertain. The Spanish government declined to comment, and representatives of the "Juntis" also made no statements.