Kinnock aide and union at odds over test posed by new languages

Date: 30/01/03

By Martin Banks

EUROPEAN Union institutions are unprepared for the "enormous" linguistic problems they will face after next year's enlargement, it has been claimed.

The number of 'official' languages will almost double next year from 11 to 20 - or 21 if the Turkish-speaking part of Cyprus joins the EU. And one staff union claimed this week that the European Commission had not thoroughly examined the challenge that this will pose.

There are already more than 100 possible language combinations in the EU and that is set to rise to more than 600 in a Union of 27 states when Romania and Bulgaria join.

Some are now warning that Europe's commitment to linguistic diversity will be put to the test as never before.

Alan Hick, president of Union Syndicale, goes further, predicting that both the European Commission and Parliament face "major" problems with their translation and interpretation services in the run-up to enlargement.

"Our concern is that the authorities have not sufficiently thought through the full implications of this," he said. "It is just over one year before these new countries join the EU and yet many questions remain unanswered.

"For example, we'd like to know whether existing translators will have to add any new languages and, if so, which ones. There is, after all, a limit to the number of languages staff can be expected to have to work from.

"Also, translators don't know if they will have to translate all, or just some, documents into languages of the accession countries. "We can also see there being big, big problems ahead in finding quality translators and interpreters from candidate countries."

Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock rejected the union's "completely misplaced" criticism.

His spokesman Eric Mamer said: "Nothing could be further from the truth than to say we have not thought through the challenge posed by enlargement in linguistic terms.

"We started preparing for enlargement in the early 1990s, training interpretation teachers, in-house interpreters in the languages of the candidate countries and providing assistance to the universities of candidate states."

He said that, to date, 287 Commission translators have learned, or are learning, a language from a candidate country.

"This year, for the first time, staff of all the institutions, including translators and interpreters, are being offered intensive summer courses in the applicant country languages. Overall, the recruitment of linguists will be a major priority this year: the first enlargement-related recruitment competitions will be organised this spring for interpreters and translators.

"Competitions are also under way to recruit English and French-speaking translators who may offer knowledge of the candidate countries' languages.

"All these measures should enable the Commission to have at its disposal the required number of translators and interpreters," Mamer said.

European Union institutions are unprepared for the 'enormous' linguistic problems they will face after enlargement, it has been claimed.