Irish will not be among 20 official EU languages in May

FROM May 1, the number of official languages used in the European Union will increase to 20, but so far, Irish will not be one of them.

At present, there are 11 languages regularly used at meetings, conferences and courts and in documents.

The 10 new member States are all bringing their own language with them, with the exception of Cyprus, which uses Greek, already an EU tongue. If current peace talks succeed, northern Cyprus could also be joining the EU on May 1, which could see Turkish becoming the union’s 21st official language.

As the European Commission sees it: “The EU is the most intense ongoing political and technical conference the world has ever seen.”

It’s little short of a Tower of Babel, with billions of words and over two billion pages due to be interpreted and translated this year alone.

This work will involve 3,000 people working for the commission, the parliament, the council, the committee of the regions, the Economic and Social Committee, the European Investment Bank and the Court of Justice.

The cost is expected to rise from €700m a year to about €1 billion, which still comes in under budget, according to commission officials. At the end of the day, making sure everyone understands everyone else costs about €2 per citizen. And this figure is much the same before and after enlargement given the increase in population to 470m.

This vast empire of linguists is available to cover about 60 meetings a day held in Brussels and elsewhere. The arrangements vary, from the simple translation between two languages, which requires only one interpreter, to simultaneous interpretation into and out of 20 languages which requires at least 60 interpreters.

And yes, they would be happy to have Irish as the 22nd official language, but the Irish Government has to ask for it.