Search results
Concerning the need for a common language to optimise operations at the EU level, the interview with DG-Translation, mentioned earlier, reveals that the EU does not intend to up their translation supply to make more information available in languages other than English. In fact, the opposite applies as they want to decrease demand.
- Alice Leal
- 2021
- Official Languages
- EU Laws
- Communication with Individuals and Organisations
- Public Consultations
- Web Content
- Social Media Activities
- Press Material
- Commission Representations in The Member States
- Translation and Interpretation
- EU Law on Languages
The official and working languages of the EU institutions (hereinafter also ‘EU official languages’) are: 1. Bulgarian 2. Spanish 3. Czech 4. Danish 5. German 6. Estonian 7. Greek 8. English 9. French 10. Irish 11. Croatian 12. Italian 13. Latvian 14. Lithuanian 15. Hungarian 16. Maltese 17. Dutch 18. Polish 19. Portuguese 20. Romanian 21. Slovak 2...
Legal acts and their summaries are available in all EU official languages.Similarly, Commission proposals for legal acts are also available in all those languages. Some types of acts are not available in all EU official languages because they are not of general application (i.e. Commission decisions addressed to a Member State or private party), or...
Writing to the Commission
Individuals and organisations may contact the EU institutions on a wide range of topics. For instance they may 1. request information 2. participate in an administrative procedure 3. file a complaint against a Member State Regardless of the topic on which they contact the EU, individuals and organisations may write to the institutions in any EU official language and have the right to receive an answer in the same language.
Getting to know citizens’ views
Members of the public can participate in‘Citizens’ dialogues’ (available in all EU official languages). These dialogues, held in the style of town-hall debates as well as on social media platforms, take place across the EU, usually with one or more Commissioners or high-level officials. They are held in the EU official language (or languages) of the host country or region, possibly with simultaneous interpretation in one or more additional languages. Dialogues held on social media platforms a...
To make it easier for people to participate in the EU policy- and law-making process, the Commission regularly launches public consultations in the form of online questionnaires. These questionnaires are always available in at least English, French and German and often in other EU official languages too. Public consultation questionnaires related t...
The Commission’s websites on the europa.eu web domain are generally available in the 24 EU official languages. More on the Commission's use of different languages on its websites.
All EU official languages are covered on social media through the Commission’s central accounts, the social media accounts of the Commission’s Representations in the Member States and the accounts of the Members of the College of Commissioners. This includes social media content, campaigns and engagement with citizens.
The European Commission Spokesperson’s Service’s press material (such as press releases, questions and answers, factsheets) are always published in English, French and German. They are often also translated into specific languages or even all EU official languages on a case-by-case basis. Any press material related to the meeting of the College of ...
The dedicated websites and social media pages of the Commission Representations in each Member State use the EU official language (or languages) of the Member State concerned.
The Commission relies on a pool of highly skilled translators and interpreters, ensuring that all EU official languages can be used in and by the institutions. The Directorate-General for Interpretationprovides interpretation services to EU institutions for meetings and conferences. The Directorate-General for Translationtranslates documents from a...
The rules governing the use of languages by the EU institutions are established by the Council, acting unanimously by means of regulations, adopted under Article 342 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Those rules are laid down in Regulation No 1 from 1958, as amended, which provides that the institutions have 24 official and wo...
People also ask
What is the difference between EU English and EU English?
Is English still a European language?
Are all EU official languages able to describe both domestic and EU concepts?
Do all EU languages have a common 'neutral' EU language?
The 24 official languages of the EU are: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
in English in the EU, its unofficial lingua franca8 of sorts (see Leal, 2016). The EU’s ‘preference’ for English then feeds into the member states’ emphasis on English, for instance, in their education systems. In 2014, ‘virtually all’ lower secondary school pupils learned English – many English only – and the trend is rising ...
- Alice Leal
- 2021
In our understanding, the term EU English is used to refer to this particular variety of the English language involving both EU terminology and a number of other EU-specific lexical, grammatical and discourse features.
Euro English, Euro-English or European English, less commonly known as EU English, Continental English and EU Speak, is a group of dialects of the English language as used in continental Europe, based on common mistranslations and the technical jargon of the European Union (EU) and the native languages of its non-native, English-speaking ...
On a more serious note, although the whole English language used in the EU might not end up looking like that, there are real differences in the way that the English language is spoken by native speakers and what is known as EU English.
