The countries in the EU have different languages. To avoid offending any country, the EU uses each and every one of those tongues. Every member country is entitled to have every single EU document and speech translated into its native language.

Is this a problem? Until recently there were 15 EU countries with 55 different language-pairs to translate from one to the other, or from the other to the one (11 separate languages). But the ten countries that recently joined the EU (9 more languages) raised this to 190 language-pairs. There can't be many people who speak both Maltese and Lithuanian, from which to find qualified translators or simultaneous-interpreters!

Reports the paper, "Only seven people in the world were qualified to interpret EU documents into Maltese." There's a heavy campaign to find or train the people needed, but the skills needed to be a trainer, or to evaluate one, are the very translation skills already in short supply. Meanwhile, the backlog of documents needing translation - 60,000 pages of documents needing translation – is projected to reach 300,000 pages by 2006. Sometimes interpreting has to be roundabout (from Czech to German to English in order to get to Lithuanian), and who knows what errors are introduced?

It will get worse. By 2008 Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia are expected to enter, adding three more languages. Spain has requested official-language status for four more of its languages, including Catalan and Basque; Ireland says it will propose Gaelic; and Luxembourg may not be far behind. Surely those tongues are as important as Maltese!

There's been debate over going to a single language, with English, Latin or Esperanto proposed. But the political and practical difficulties are obvious.
Who knows? Perhaps one of our members has multilingual skills to get a well-paying job from this.

This is one reason why many citizens of the UK don't want to be in the EU. It is a profligate and inefficient organisation which wastes money on an unbelievable scale.

Not only is there the multiple language problem but also there is the multiple location problem which means that MEPs and the secretariate have to move from one HQ to another so that all get a share.

This doesn't matter to the MEPs, of course, sibce they get paid a very handsome expense allowance to cover the costs (far more than they actually are) so the more they waste time moving around the better they like it.

It's interesting to note that some official EU languages have less speakers than some European minority languages (e.g., Danish vs Catalan).

I think the UK should pull out of the EU altogether and then they can use English as a lingua franca.

I've always thought that instead of shuttling people to Strasbourg and Brussels, the headquarters should be fixed in the small and centrally-located country of Luxembourg. It now occurs to me that the obvious solution to the language problem is to use just Letzebuergesch.

Letzebuergesch

East or West?

Quote: "the centrally-located country of Luxembourg"

Huh?

Indeed. We all know that England is the central hub about which Europe revolves.

Which language is spoken the most throughout Europe? Wouldn't that be the way to decide?

Which language is spoken the most throughout Europe?

The problem with adapting one language (e.g., English, French, or German might be logical choices) is that it would give privilege to one group within the community. Choosing Latin or Esperanto would at least put most people on an equal footing. This is one of the reasons why English has remained a common language in India. People whose first language is not Hindi feel that they would be at a disadvantage with folks whose native language was Hindi.

The total land area of Luxembourg is 999 square miles. You are invited to click HERE for other fascinating information about the country and its languages.

centrally-located... Well we've taken in a few new countries since I first had that thought. Obviously if I were to start thinking it now I'd be in favour of Ruritania or Grand Fenwick. Hey, they speak English in Grand Fenwick. Perfect!

aput says, "The obvious solution to the language problem is to use just Letzebuergesch."

Unfortunately, according to the fouth paragragh of Jerry's link, there's no accepted orthography by which Lëtzebuergesch can be rendered as a written language.

Or perhaps I should say "fortunately". On reflection, perhaps this makes Lëtzebuergesch the ideal language for the EU. Its adoption would eliminate all ability, and hence all need, to translate or even produce written documents.