The debate, lively, has even spread to the football field.

Pep Guardiola, coach of Manchester City, and Joan Laporta, president of FC Barcelona, both Catalan, have called on member states to move the lines, in videos posted in recent days on X (formerly Twitter).

The European Union, where there are about sixty regional or minority languages, currently has 24 official languages.

This status implies, inter alia, that EU legal documents (treaties, regulations or international agreements) are translated into these languages, and that interpretation is available for summits and ministerial meetings.

Such recognition requires a unanimous decision by the Twenty-Seven.

The request of the government of outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, transmitted in the middle of August, was a demand of the Catalan separatists.

The socialist leader will absolutely need them soon if he wants to hope to be re-elected to power.

And Spain used its presidency of the Council of the EU, which it holds until December, to put the subject on the agenda of Tuesday's meeting of European affairs ministers. An eagerness that may have annoyed within the bloc.

"Budgetary matters"

At a preparatory meeting on Friday, EU ambassadors stressed that such a request raised "legal, administrative and budgetary issues" that must be carefully considered before any decision is taken.

Sweden has publicly expressed its "reluctance", calling in particular for "a study on the impact of this proposal on the effectiveness of the EU's work", in a statement published on the government's website.

"There are many minority languages that are not official languages in the EU," a Swedish government spokeswoman said.

Recognition could lead to similar claims from regional languages elsewhere in the EU, such as in France, where Basque and Catalan are also spoken.

Spain said it would cover the translation costs itself, but did not provide a quantified estimate, raising questions among its partners.

The financial implications of such a decision are particularly scrutinized, at a time when difficult negotiations are underway on an extension to the EU's multiannual budget, taking into account in particular the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

In Spain, Catalan, Basque and Galician have the status of co-official languages.

And from Tuesday, MEPs who wish to do so will be able to speak in plenary session in the Spanish Parliament in these three languages, with simultaneous translation.

According to the latest study by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE), 9.1 million people speak Catalan, 2.6 million speak Galician and 1.1 million speak Basque.

In the EU, which enshrines "linguistic diversity" as a fundamental value, there were four official languages in 1958 (German, French, Italian and Dutch) and have multiplied with successive enlargements to 24.

© 2023 AFP