The Tribunal Superior de Justicia del País Vasco on 16 September 2026 Decreto 19/2024 on the normalisation of the use of Basque (Euskera) in public administration. According to the Basque government, the annulment is based mainly on procedural issues, in particular an inadequate memoria económica on the financial impact of the regulations. The ruling is not final; the government has a period from the date of notification in which to appeal.
The First Vice-Lehendakari and Minister for Culture and Language Policy, Ibone Bengoetxea, said that the Gobierno Vasco would examine the decision thoroughly and continue with the new decree already in preparation. She stressed that the decision did not fundamentally call into question the aim of normalising the use of Euskera in public administration. The aim remained to ensure that citizens could choose the official language in their dealings with public authorities.
The background to the review process, which was already under way, is the amendment to public service law approved in June (Ley de Empleo Público), which makes it necessary to adapt the language-law framework. Following the court’s decision, the government intends to strengthen the requirements for the reasoning—particularly with regard to budgetary and staffing impacts—to provide greater legal certainty for the future decree.
In practice, the annulment means that the provisions associated with Decreto 19/2024 will not apply for the time being. The immediate effects on internal staffing requirements and the linguistic accessibility of individual services depend on how the proceedings develop. The government is considering an appeal and intends to incorporate the court’s guidance into the new draft.
The court’s criticism is directed primarily at compliance with formal requirements in law-making, not at the legitimate aim of equality between languages. Politically, the ruling has intensified the debate in the Basque Country over the scope and pace of language-policy intervention in public administration. Interests are in conflict: while supporters see active promotion of Euskera as part of equality between the official languages, critics warn against disproportionate requirements in the public service. How far the future order can go will depend on the court’s reasoning and the robustness of the new assessment of its financial and organisational impact.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).