EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 84/163

(2004/C 84 E/0201)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0100/04

by Marianne Thyssen (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(22 January 2004)

Subject: Language arrangements on the ‘Europa’ website

The ‘Europa’ website (http://europa.eu.int) is a means of communicating with the European public and, given the development of the electronic media, will come to dominate such communication. Unfortunately this site is increasingly making use of only three languages: French, English and German. It is true that the website opens in all eleven official languages, but as soon as the important pages containing specific, up-to-date information are reached, the number of available languages changes, so consistently that this would seem to be a ‘policy’.

I am not aware whether a decision has been taken to limit the site to three languages, or whether this is being done temporarily for practical reasons. However, I take the view that this policy is in violation of Regulation No 1 of 1958 (1) determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community, and with the Treaty. Both legal sources provide that European citizens may address the institutions in any of the official EU languages and are entitled to receive a reply in the same language. As a Member of the European Parliament, I am receiving an increasing number of remarks and complaints about this situation. That is why I am asking this question.

Does the Commission not consider it important, given the increasing use of electronic communications, that these contacts with the European public via the Europa website should take place in all the EU languages? When approximately will the Commission take steps to ensure that its contacts with European citizens via the Europa website take place in all the languages of the Union?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(26 February 2004)

The Commission would first inform the Honourable Member that the Europa site respects both the spirit and the letter of the Treaties and Regulation No 1 of 1958. All legislative documents are available on the site in all the official languages of the Union. This is also the case for pages containing general information mostly intended for the general public. This is a sizeable undertaking, unparalleled anywhere in the world, and one that the Commission will be continuing after enlargement on 1 May 2004 when the number of official languages is set to nearly double.

The Honourable Member is nonetheless correct to note that, other than in the cases referred to above, the Europa site is not available in all the official languages in its entirety. However, this is nothing new and most certainly not any change in language policy as regards providing the public with information; it is merely a question of making rational use of the limited resources available. In particular, pages intended more for a specialised audience and news pages that need to be available quickly are often published in just a few languages. Such pages are published as quickly as possible in the languages available in order to provide the target audience with the information on time.

(1) OJ 17, 6.10.1958, p. 385.