WRITTEN QUESTION E-0558/02

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(27 February 2002)

Subject: Incorrect forms of names arising from standard used to record them in public documents

Major problems are caused when Greek civil servants transliterate Greek names into Latin characters (when issuing new identity cards, passports, diplomas, etc.), especially for Greek citizens who have names of foreign origin. The particular standard applied ELOT 743 devised by the Greek Standardisation Organisation does not seem to cover all cases where letters are pronounced differently from one country to another. For example, the name of a Greek woman married to a German named Weber would in Greek appear as , which then transliterates back into Latin characters using the new standard as Vemper.

The result of this situation is that citizens with Greek identity documents have dual names in the other Member States and experience considerable complications and inconvenience over matters such as insurance, pensions, bank accounts, etc.

In view of the fact that this situation creates an obstacle to freedom of movement and establishment for Greek citizens in the other 14 Member States of the Union which use the Latin alphabet, what representations will the Commission make to the Greek authorities to ensure that names of foreign origin transliterated from the Greek version of those names appear as they do in their original form?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(3 April 2002)

In its judgment of 30 March 1993 in Case C-168/91(1), the Court of Justice acknowledged (paragraph 14) that it is for the Member State in question to adopt legislation or administrative measures laying down the detailed rules for the transcription of a Greek name into Roman characters in accordance with the prescriptions of any international conventions relating to civil status to which it is a party. Thus it is for Greece to lay down the detailed rules for the transcription of a Greek name into Roman characters or vice versa in accordance with such international conventions.

However, the Court of Justice, in the same judgment (paragraphs 15 to 17), ruled that rules of that kind are to be regarded as incompatible with the Treaty only in so far as their application causes a Greek national such a degree of inconvenience as in fact to interfere with his freedom to exercise his right of establishment. It also holds that such interference occurs where the party concerned is obliged to use a spelling of his name derived from the transliteration used in registers of civil status if that spelling is such as to modify its pronunciation and if the resulting distortion exposes him to the risk that potential clients could confuse him with other persons.

Accordingly, any citizen of the European Union is entitled to require the Greek authorities to transcribe a family name in Roman characters into Greek characters in such a way that its pronunciation is not modified and that the resulting distortion does not expose him to the risk of confusion with other persons. He could, where appropriate, demand that his name not be transcribed into Greek characters or that the two inscriptions in Greek and Roman characters be placed side by side at least in documents that will be used in another Member State, in order to avoid any confusion.

(1) [1993] ECR I-1191.