As the newspaper reports, These capitals are fiercely opposed to the progressive “Anglicization” of community institutions.
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According to information from people familiar with the matter, EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefovic presented a proposal to the ministers of the Member States to radically simplify procedures.
During last month's meeting, he proposed that the process of preparing the recent agreement with Indonesia – including detailed legal verification (so-called legal scrubbing) – should be conducted entirely in English.
Typically, these procedures take up to two years. This is because any change, even the smallest, to the text of the agreement must be agreed and formally implemented in all 24 official EU languages.
Sefovic, a Slovak politician, wants to cut this time in half by postponing the full translation of the treaty until the very end of the process. He argues that bureaucratic delays are hampering the European economy, postponing real gains from trade. Over the last two years, the EU has signed five such agreements in an attempt to become independent from the US and China, which are increasingly restricting imports.
“If you look at any estimates of how much money we lose when this process takes a long time, I think that – especially in this unstable world – it is something we can no longer afford,” he explained to journalists at the beginning of the year, citing as an example the agreement with the South American bloc Mercosur, finalized in January. According to a report by the ECIPE think-tank, each year of delay in implementing this pact costs the EU over EUR 50 billion in lost GDP growth.
The constitutional wall and the fear of the erosion of rules
Although the commissioner argued for a “broad consensus” and received strong support from some diplomats seeking to open markets more quickly for companies, fundamental issues stood in the way. France and Italy raised official constitutional objections.
— It's a matter of the French constitution. France cannot be bound or committed to a text that is not drafted in French – a French official says clearly in an interview with the newspaper. As confirmed by sources, the Roman government has similar legal restrictions in its constitution.
Opponents of pushing for the English language also fear a dangerous erosion of the EU's commitment to multilingualism. It is true that English, French and German dominate the daily work of the institutions, but since the EU enlargement in 2004, the position of English has increased dramatically (especially in countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, where it is the most popular second language). However, the Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees every EU citizen the right to communicate with offices in any of 24 languages, and legal acts must be available in all official versions.
The Commission denies the allegations
The European Commission spokesman assures that Brussels is “fully focused on the entry into force of free trade agreements as soon as possible”. At the same time, it ensures that the new strategy is not a shortcut at the expense of tradition.
— Working in one language as the lingua franca during a technical and legal review is standard practice in complex international negotiations. This in no way prejudges or shortens the full translation of the agreement into all 24 official EU languages, as required by EU law and in full respect of our institutional prerogatives and democratic control processes, the spokesman concludes.
However, the dispute over whether the EU rush can transcend linguistic tradition remains open.
