ELEN Press Releases
ELEN “profound disagreement” with ECHR decision concerning the Turó del Drac de Canet school case.
ELEN Statement ELEN expresses its profound disagreement with today’s incoherent decision by the European Court of Human Rights concerning the Turó del Drac de Canet school case, Catalan-medium education and the enforcement of 25% Spanish as a teaching requirement....
ELEN calls for new European Strategic Framework for European endangered and minoritised languages..
ELEN has called for a new European Strategic Framework for European endangered and minoritised languages at the recent EESC Civil Society Week. ELEN Secretary-General Davyth Hicks called for new measures in the March 5th session on building resilience along with NGOs...
ELEN set for EESC Civil Society Week 2026
From Monday March 2nd to Thursday March 5th 2026, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) will bring together the main European civil society organisations from across Europe to discuss, debate and contribute to shaping the future of democracy and building...
Events
Spanish Government warns EU: no more new official languages until Catalan, Galician and Basque are official.
At an EU Ministers meeting in Dublin this week Spain's Minister for Europe, Fernando Samperdro, said that: "It is not possible for Spain to accept new official languages without first approving the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician. In this context, it is urgent to move forward with the reform that will allow Spain’s official languages to also become official languages of the EU.”
ELEN, along with our Catalan, Galician and Basque member organisations, have been campaigning for EU official status for years and we are currently calling again on the representations of the different Members States in Brussels to support official status for the three languages at the next EU General Affairs Council on September 22nd.
The current situation underlines again the urgent need for reform of EU Regulations (Article 1 TEU and Art. 24 TFEU) that dictates which languages will be official, and which have never been fit for purpose. It has never reflected Europe's sociolinguistic reality, it excludes endangered and minoritised languages, entrenches the notion of "one language, one state", and undermines the EU's own Value of respect for language diversity.
For example, Montenegro, population c. 625,000 (only 40,000 more than Cornwall) speaks Montenegrin (a branch of Serbo-Croat) and with official status is set to get the usual budget for that, around 44 million euros. With that status comes translation of all documents into the language, interpreters in the European Parliament, that citizens can correspond with the EU in their language, and all the prestige and language industry jobs that come with that.
Meanwhile, despite Spanish Government support, Catalan c. 10 million speakers, Galician 2.4 million speakers, and Basque c. 806,000 speakers continue to have official status denied by some EU Member-States on the EU Council, which must agree with unanimity before they can add another EU official language.
In addition, it is also a huge waste of EU budget and blatant discrimination to give mutually intelligible languages (Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Bosnian) full official status with their own separate budgets yet continue to discriminate against Catalan, Basque and Galician (or any other European non-state language) simply because they are not independent member-states.
Òmnium Cultural Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística Plataforma per la Llengua Obra Cultural Balear CIEMEN Acció Cultural del País Valencià Eurolang
At an EU Ministers meeting in Dublin this week Spain's Minister for Europe, Fernando Samperdro, said that: "It is not possible for Spain to accept new official languages without first approving the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician. In this context, it is urgent to move forward with the reform that will allow Spain’s official languages to also become official languages of the EU.”
ELEN, along with our Catalan, Galician and Basque member organisations, have been campaigning for EU official status for years and we are currently calling again on the representations of the different Members States in Brussels to support official status for the three languages at the next EU General Affairs Council on September 22nd.
The current situation underlines again the urgent need for reform of EU Regulations (Article 1 TEU and Art. 24 TFEU) that dictates which languages will be official, and which have never been fit for purpose. It has never reflected Europe's sociolinguistic reality, it excludes endangered and minoritised languages, entrenches the notion of "one language, one state", and undermines the EU's own Value of respect for language diversity.
For example, Montenegro, population c. 625,000 (only 40,000 more than Cornwall) speaks Montenegrin (a branch of Serbo-Croat) and with official status is set to get the usual budget for that, around 44 million euros. With that status comes translation of all documents into the language, interpreters in the European Parliament, that citizens can correspond with the EU in their language, and all the prestige and language industry jobs that come with that.
Meanwhile, despite Spanish Government support, Catalan c. 10 million speakers, Galician 2.4 million speakers, and Basque c. 806,000 speakers continue to have official status denied by some EU Member-States on the EU Council, which must agree with unanimity before they can add another EU official language.
In addition, it is also a huge waste of EU budget and blatant discrimination to give mutually intelligible languages (Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Bosnian) full official status with their own separate budgets yet continue to discriminate against Catalan, Basque and Galician (or any other European non-state language) simply because they are not independent member-states.
Òmnium Cultural Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística Plataforma per la Llengua Obra Cultural Balear CIEMEN Acció Cultural del País Valencià Eurolang
Avisa a la UE: No aceptará las lenguas de la ampliación hasta que catalán, euskera y gallego sean oficiales.
"It is not possible for Spain to accept new official languages without first approving the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician.
"In this context, it is urgent to move forward with the reform that will allow Spain’s official languages to also become official languages of the EU.”
Important and hopefully decisive statement from Spanish Minister for Europe Fernando Sampedro made at an EU Ministers meeting in Dublin on Thursday and Friday. We hope it will finally result in full EU official status for Catalan, Basque and Galician on September 22nd when the EU General Affairs Council meets in Brussels. #ELEN2026
Òmnium Cultural Plataforma per la Llengua A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística Obra Cultural Balear Acció Cultural del País Valencià Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua CIEMEN Política Lingüística @followers Vicent Marzà Diana Riba Ana Miranda Eurolang
Report: https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20260904/11627337/espana-vincula-proceso-ampliacion-europea-oficialidad-catalan.html
"In this context, it is urgent to move forward with the reform that will allow Spain’s official languages to also become official languages of the EU.”
Important and hopefully decisive statement from Spanish Minister for Europe Fernando Sampedro made at an EU Ministers meeting in Dublin on Thursday and Friday. We hope it will finally result in full EU official status for Catalan, Basque and Galician on September 22nd when the EU General Affairs Council meets in Brussels. #ELEN2026
Òmnium Cultural Plataforma per la Llengua A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística Obra Cultural Balear Acció Cultural del País Valencià Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua CIEMEN Política Lingüística @followers Vicent Marzà Diana Riba Ana Miranda Eurolang
Report: https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20260904/11627337/espana-vincula-proceso-ampliacion-europea-oficialidad-catalan.html
