Little hope of end to Union language row

Date: 09/09/1999

By Simon Taylor

EU FOREIGN ministers will try to extinguish the smouldering row over the languages which can be used at informal minis-terial meetings next week.

But Union diplomats are sceptical that a simple solution can be found to square Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's insistence that full German translation must be provided with strong opposition from other EU governments.

Spain and Italy have emerged as Germany's newest opponents in the language battle. After the Finnish presidency made concessions to Berlin by agreeing to provide interpretation into and out of German for the two last informal ministers' meetings, Italy's Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini wrote to the Finns complaining that traditional practices were being torn up.

Then, at last weekend's foreign ministers' meeting in Saariselkä, Spain's Abel Matutes started speaking in Spanish to protest at German being provided as a fourth working language in addition to French, English and Finnish.

EU diplomats say the argument will be far from easy to settle because most member states believe the existing three-language arrangement is right. "We can accept the present language regime of French and English plus the language of the presidency without exceptions," said one Spanish official.

Diplomats say that if Berlin wins concessions seen by other member states as unfair, they too will start asking for interpretation into and out of their languages.

Officials say the issue has become controversial because of the challenges of enlargement, when the number of official EU languages could rise to 26, placing an impossible burden on the Union's resources for translation and interpretation. They believe that by putting down a marker now, Germany is man-oeuvring for position ahead of forthcoming debate on how to tackle the problem.