Sweden Signals it Won’t Back Spain’s Catalan Plan at EU Meeting

(Bloomberg) -- Sweden won’t back Spain’s proposal to make Catalan an EU working language at a meeting of ministers next week, significantly complicating Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s plans to win a new term.

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“The government is hesitant about revising regulation No 1 to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official languages and working languages for the EU institutions,” Sweden said in a statement published online. “The government’s opinion is that consequences for efficiency of the union’s work as well as budgetary and practical effects need to be analyzed in order to take a final position.”

Sanchez agreed with a group of Catalan separatists to push the proposal at an EU Council meeting on Sept. 19. Sanchez is locked in negotiations withe the secessionist party, called Junts per Catalunya, as he seeks support to clinch a majority in Spain’s fragmented parliament and be reelected for a new term. Failing to deliver the language proposal could severally complicate the negotiations for Sanchez.

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