Member states of the European Union have poured cold water over an ambitious request made by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
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00:00 Europe is asking for time to study Spain`s request to include Catalan, Galician and Basque
00:06 in the EU`s 24 official languages.
00:11 They want more legal certainty and an estimate of the economic impact.
00:16 So far, none of the ministers who met on Tuesday in Brussels to study it have opposed the idea
00:21 outright.
00:22 But almost all of them have doubts.
00:25 Some fear a spillover effect of other regional languages.
00:30 We need to have more investigation about the proposal, both when it comes to legal questions
00:37 and financial questions.
00:38 So it`s too early to say.
00:40 What consequences it will have, there are several and many minority languages within
00:46 the European Union that are not official languages.
00:50 Even the Finnish minister spoke in Catalan in Brussels on Tuesday.
00:54 But to say that it`s too early to decide.
00:56 "We have to defend the linguistic diversity of the European Union, but we also have to
01:10 know the consequences of our decisions.
01:16 So, it`s too early to make a decision today."
01:26 Spain has offered to pay the costs and has announced that it will prioritize the language
01:30 with the most speakers.
01:32 That is Catalan.
01:35 Practically all speakers of the three languages also speak Spanish.
01:38 But the Catalan language organization insists that this is a measure in favor of multilingualism.
01:47 All speakers of the Maltese, which is the official language, speak English.
01:50 All speakers of the Irish speak English.
01:53 And so, this redundancy, so to speak, is not a solid argument because there are other cases
01:59 of other languages that are already official.
02:01 Spain presented the proposal in August and was looking for a quick approval in order
02:05 to gain the support of the country`s pro-independence parties.
02:09 Pedro Sanchez needs their vote to form a new government.
02:16 At the European level, its approval would mean, among other things, the translation
02:20 of all EU documents, from treaties to press releases, and the permanent availability of
02:25 interpreters in the institutions.
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