Spain ties Catalan official status to EU enlargement, raising alarm in Montenegro

Spain has put language politics back on the enlargement table. In Dublin this week, EU secretary of state Fernando Sampedro said the Union should settle official status for Catalan, Basque and Galician before it takes in new members – and did not deny that support for accessions such as Montenegro’s could be linked to that demand. EUalive’s partner in Montenegro AntenaM called it a possible threat to Podgorica’s membership bid

Montenegro is the front-runner among candidates. EU leaders have repeatedly pointed to 2028 as a realistic entry date if reforms stay on track. Accession still needs unanimity. So does any change to the EU’s language regime under Regulation 1/1958. That is why a Spanish domestic bargain now sits across Montenegro’s path.

What Madrid is asking

Sampedro told reporters that enlargement will mean more official EU languages, “but before that we hope the expectations of 20 million Europeans will be met.” Catalan, Basque and Galician are co-official inside Spain; they are not official working languages of the EU institutions. Madrid first requested that change in 2023, after Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists struck a deal with Catalan party Junts. Spain says it will cover the extra translation and interpretation costs, estimated by the Commission at about €132 million a year, and has offered a phased start from 2027 limited at first to Council and Parliament legislation.

The issue returns to the General Affairs Council on 22 September, under the heading “official languages and enlargement.” Diplomats say this is not a vote. It is the first ministerial discussion in more than a year. Germany, Italy, Finland and others have blocked unanimity; Spain claims resistance has narrowed. Asked whether new members such as Montenegro would be made conditional on the Catalan file, Sampedro did not reject the linkage. “I’m sure that we will solve it much before,” he said.

Why Podgorica is uneasy

Every accession treaty adds the new member’s official language to the EU list. For Montenegro, that language is Montenegrin. Diplomats have already grumbled about the cost of interpreters for a language so close to Croatian. Spain’s argument is that it is odd to rewrite the language regulation for newcomers while three co-official languages of a 40-year member remain outside. The political risk for Montenegro is delay, not a formal veto announced in Podgorica. Enlargement and language status both require every capital to say yes.

The other language fight, inside Montenegro

The Spanish file lands on a dispute EUalive has already reported. Pro-Serbian parties in the ruling coalition want the constitution amended so that Serbian becomes an official language alongside Montenegrin. Census figures show more residents naming Serbian than Montenegrin as their mother tongue. The two standards are mutually intelligible. Critics in Podgorica see the campaign as part of a “Serbian World” agenda that tests statehood; coalition partners have used it as leverage over Prime Minister Milojko Spajić. Speaker Andrija Mandić has argued that recognising Serbian would not hurt the EU path and could even bring the language into the Union on accession. Brussels, as EUalive noted in January, is unlikely to welcome two near-identical official languages from a country of 620,000 people. That earlier report is here: “Serbian World” in Podgorica? The push for Serbian as official language tests Montenegro’s sovereignty.

“Serbian World” in Podgorica? The push for Serbian as official language tests Montenegro’s sovereignty

Two language rows, one unanimity rule

Spain presents itself as a strong supporter of Western Balkan enlargement and says the Catalan question should be closed first, not used to sink Montenegro. The mechanics still cut both ways. If Madrid holds the line, Montenegro’s timetable depends on a Spanish parliamentary bargain with Junts. If Podgorica’s coalition elevates Serbian at home, the EU would face an even messier language package at the moment of accession. Neither fight is about grammar. Both are about who can block a unanimous decision – and who pays for another interpreting booth in Brussels.

With AntenaM and Euractiv

Caption: Translation boots behind EU officials in Wicklow, 1 September 2026 [Council Newsroom]