NOTA 011

Albares welcomes Metsola to promote co-official language use in the European Parliament

• The meeting also covered the importance of participating in the upcoming European elections in June and the future of the CAP

March 1, 2024

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, today received the President of the European Parliament (EP), Roberta Metsola, at the Palace of Viana, and discussed the promotion of co-official language use in the European Parliament. The meeting also covered the importance of citizen participation in the European elections next June and the future of the common agricultural policy (CAP), among other issues.

Albares reminded the EP President of the importance Spain attaches to multilingualism and the use of co-official languages in European institutions.

Along these lines, the minister brought up Spain's request to be able to use co-official languages in the plenary sessions of the EP, the only main EU institution with which Spain does not yet have an administrative agreement for the use of these languages.

European elections

Albares and Metsola agreed that the upcoming EP elections are key for democracy and expressed concern about the low turnout in these elections, although Spanish participation is above the EU average. In the last elections in 2019, the turnout was 60.7%.

The meeting also served to review the achievements of the Spanish Presidency of the EU and to note the consolidation under the current Belgian Presidency of Spain’s approach through dossiers such as the Pact on Migration and Asylum or treaty reform.

The future of the CAP

The meeting with the EP President also covered other current affairs such as the situation facing EU farmers, the negative impact of the Covid-19 crisis, and Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Despite the undeniable benefits of the CAP, Spain advocates structural and short-term solutions, and the Government recently announced a package of 18 measures to respond to farmers' concerns.