Agency gets a wordy watchdog chastisement for ‘gobbledegook’

Date: 24/01/02

By Martin Banks

THE European Ombudsman says language used by an EU agency in dealing with the public is not 'user-friendly'.

Jacob Söderman has received several complaints from members of the public concerning 'gobbledegook' in correspondence by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), based in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The centre is an advisory body to the European Commission but Söderman says the language it uses is so convoluted it supports a 'negative' image of the EU.

Two examples of phrases used in letters sent by the agency include:

• 'Although your response, following examination of the file, was not one giving her satisfaction, since you considered that the centre had not at any moment misbehaved in her regard, we did not adopt, thereafter, a negative, hostile or revenge-seeking attitude (although we could justifiably have done so).'
• '(...) is also tangible proof of the bad faith of X which has been, for reasons unknown to CEDEFOP unable to stomach its self-considered 'defeat' at the hands of a (Greek-based) competitor'

However, Strasbourg-based Söderman will not win any plain language awards for his response, which complains of 'improper wordings' rather than, say, gobbledegook or baffling expressions.

The Ombudsman states: 'Improper wordings only provoke and support a negative impression of the EU institution concerned and of the Community administration at large.'

The European Ombudsman says language used by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) in dealing with the public is not 'user-friendly'.

http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/ http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/

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