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Luxembourgish and Turkish, which have official status in Luxembourg and Cyprus, respectively, are the only two official languages of EU member states that are not official languages of the EU. In 2023, the Spanish government requested that its co-official languages Catalan, Basque, and Galician be added to the official languages of the EU.
The EU has 24 official languages, including English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Learn how the EU supports multilingualism, protects its linguistic diversity and promotes language learning in Europe.
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- 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...
The EU has 23 official languages, including French, German, and English, and they are all working languages in the member states. Learn the list of the 23 official languages of the EU and how they are used in different contexts.
May 12, 2018 · The European Union has 23 official languages, including English, French, German and Spanish. Learn about the criteria, history and benefits of multilingual diversity in the EU.
the EU's Official Journal. The EU language regime can only be changed by a unanimous vote in the Council only at interof the EU. All language versions of an EU law have the same legal value, unlike UN or OECD documents, where only the original is the authentic version. Legislation and documents of major public importance or interest are ...
Today, no fewer than 24 official languages are used in the European Parliament, which is an immense linguistic challenge. Each time new Member States have joined the EU, they have added to the number of official languages. Official EU language since… Dutch, French, German, Italian: 1958; Danish, English: 1973; Greek: 1981; Portuguese, Spanish ...
