January 2005

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LINGUISTIC COMPROMISE OF THE LUXEMBOURG EU PRESIDENCY

January 2005 — Yesterday, the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union, represented by the Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, engaged itself to work for the status of the Catalan language in the EU. This was the outcome of a meeting between the current EU president and some representatives of the Catalan nationalist party CiU (Convergència i Unió). Mr. Juncker showed his agreement with the linguistic memorandum presented by the Spanish state last December, and he added that the Luxembourg Presidency would work for an improvement of the status of the Catalan language at European level.

Mr. Juncker did not give specific measures about the ‘work’ to be done by the Presidency; however he said that he would try to convince his European partners to accept an improvement on the legal framework of the language. Juncker admitted that some Member states differ from this point of view, which according to Mr. Juncker is quite normal since ‘every member state has linguistic problems to solve internally or at EU level”.

So far, some Spanish representatives were not sure about the reaction of Luxembourg on the linguistic issue, arguing that this small country (one of the founders of the EU) has never asked for the full officiality of Luxembourgish. Actually, this State language enjoys certain rights at EU level, but has not a complete official recognition.

More specific information on the linguistic stratification or hierarchy as regards language recognition at European level can be found in the recently published dossier no. 17 by Mercator-Legislation.