The EP Bureau addresses the use of Catalan in the plenary sessions of the European Parliament at the request of the PSOE but there will be no decision

The Bureau of the European Parliament addresses this Monday the possibility of allowing the use of the co-official languages ​​in Spain -Catalan, Basque and Galician- in the plenary sessions of the institution, an issue that has been on hold since the Government formally requested it in September 2022 but that this Monday PSOE and ERC have announced that it will be elevated to the European parliamentary body through their respective groups, Socialists and Democrats and Greens / ALE.

Parliamentary sources consulted by Europa Press specify that the matter is not part of the formal agenda, so a "substantive" debate or major decisions are not expected, although it can be raised at the request of any member of the Board in the meeting that the body will have this afternoon in Strasbourg (France), where the plenary session is being held.

The request "responds to the commitment of the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to promote the use of co-official languages ​​in community institutions", according to the PSOE in a statement that advances that the use of languages ​​during plenary sessions will be " will address" in the Table at the request of S

ERC MEP Diana Riba, for her part, also celebrated in a statement over the weekend that the Board is going to discuss the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician as working languages ​​in the European Parliament, but warned that this Monday she will not be able to no decision because it is not expected to be put to a vote. This same Monday she has asked the European Parliament to act to "rectify" what she considers a "historical injustice".

For his part, Unidas Podemos MEP and Sumar spokesperson, Ernest Urtasun, who is also vice president of the European Greens, has urged Metsola to set a precise calendar to put this petition to a vote and contribute to promoting linguistic diversity in the EU.

The Bureau of the European Parliament is made up of the president of the institution, the Maltese conservative Roberta Metsola, as well as the 14 vice-presidents and the five quaestors elected for the second half of the mandate of the European Parliament, none of them Spanish.

Spain formalized this request, which only covers the use of languages ​​in the European Parliament and not in the rest of the European institutions, in September 2022, as part of the commitments of the dialogue table between the Government and the Generalitat of Catalonia.

However, since then it has never been formally discussed in the institution chaired by Metsola and parliamentary sources see it as unlikely to advance as long as the Twenty-Seven do not rule on the most recent request that the Government has included in the community agenda taking advantage of the rotating Spanish presidency. so that co-official languages ​​are recognized as EU languages.

In this case, the EU governments, which are competent to make this decision, will discuss the Spanish request for the first time at the Council of General Affairs Ministers of the EU to be held on September 19.

In this case, the agenda of the meeting of ministers that Spain will preside over, as acting president of the EU, does already foresee a debate on the use of co-official languages ​​and the possibility of a decision being made that same day, although different delegations are cautious that the Twenty-seven are already willing to make a decision at that time.