The Sánchez Government issues a warning to the EU: Spain will condition the official status of new languages in the EU on the prior inclusion of Catalan, Basque, and Galician

The Government of Pedro Sánchez has hardened its stance in the debate for Catalan, Basque, and Galician to be officially recognized by the European Union. According to sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Europa Press, Spain has communicated that it will not be "possible to accept" the incorporation of additional languages into the community linguistic regulation derived from future accessions of new Member States without the official status of its co-official languages having been previously approved.

In August 2023, as part of the agreement with Junts to secure their parliamentary support in this legislature, Spain formally submitted its request to the EU to recognize Catalan, Basque, and Galician as official languages. This process requires unanimity among the 27 member countries, a consensus still unattainable.

This was confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after announcing that they will raise this issue at the next General Affairs Council under a point dedicated to "official languages and enlargement." In this context, the Secretary of State for the EU, Fernando Sampedro, had already hinted at this new conditionality related to the entry of new countries and the possible additional languages this would imply.

Firm but demanding support

The Government reaffirms its support for the European enlargement process, as stated by both José Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Pedro Sánchez, President of the Executive. In official words: "The incorporation of new official languages is very positive due to its close relationship with the European feeling of belonging."

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs insists that it is urgent to move towards an institutional reform that allows these three Spanish languages to be officially included within the community framework. So far, no vote has been called because Spain detected a lack of sufficient unanimity to avoid a frontal rejection.

The issue will be addressed again at the meeting scheduled for September 22, although a deep debate is not expected. This will be the first occasion since July 2025 that this topic will be formally resumed after the rejection received then by a dozen European partners led by Germany.

There are still no clear indications of significant changes in the opposing positions; even after the meeting between Albares and his German counterpart last May, Berlin reiterated its reservations on the matter.

Main difficulty: achieving unanimity

The indispensable legal requirement is to have absolute unanimity among the Twenty-Seven, a complex obstacle given the legal concerns raised by several States about possible precedents for other European minority languages.

To overcome some economic and operational objections, Spain committed to assuming the additional costs estimated by the European Commission —about 132 million euros annually based on previous experiences such as with Gaelic. It also proposed a partial implementation starting in 2027: initially only translating specific regulations of the Council and European Parliament —equivalent to 3% of the total regulatory framework— with a view to reducing administrative burden.

Spanish legal and constitutional criteria

The Executive emphasizes that the three co-official languages are protected by the Spanish Constitution even before joining the EU; they are used institutionally in Congress and Senate and have previous translations of both European treaties and a large part of the community legislative body. These arguments seek to differentiate themselves from other minority linguistic requests lacking these legal and historical endorsements.