WRITTEN QUESTION P-1453/98

by Olivier Dupuis (ARE) to the Commission

(7 May 1998)

Subject: Communication

In view of the forthcoming enlargements of the EU, communication within the institutions, between the institutions and citizens and between citizens and the Union is one of the most urgent and crucial issues now facing the institutions. Given the imminent prospect of a system with 16 official languages and 240 possible language combinations, would the Commission not agree that the time has come to start looking for new solutions? Such solutions include the introduction of a "bridge language" in the interpreting and translation systems together with a legal reference language, and the introduction of a neutral language, such as Esperanto, in national education systems, which would enable the Union's cultural and linguistic diversity to be preserved while facilitating the subsequent learning of the languages spoken within the EU.

More specifically, what action has the Commission already taken or does it intend to take to tackle the organizational and financial problems to which the increase in the number of official languages will give rise?

Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission

(5 June 1998)

Article 217 of the EC Treaty provides that the rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Community are determined by the Council, acting unanimously. The Commission would recall that the Council, in its conclusions of 12 June 1995 and the conclusions of the Presidency of 26 and 27 June 1995, emphasised the importance of linguistic diversity and multilingualism in the Community by treating each of the languages of the Union on an equal footing. Moreover, Article 126 of the EC Treaty provides that Community action will be aimed at developing the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the Member States.

The Commission began reorganising the Joint Interpreting and Conference Service in the second half of 1996. Through rationalisation and modernisation, interpretation costs were brought under control. The total operational cost of the Joint Interpreting and Conference Service has been stabilised and the average cost of the services of an interpreter has been reduced. The new invoicing method for the services of interpreters has shown the savings potential of efficient and rigorous planning of meetings and language services.

The Commission is accordingly convinced of the feasibility of an enlarged interpretation service at a moderate cost by:

- using modular booths combined with asymmetrical interpreting;

- providing adequate and intensive training and, from this year on, making a special effort to train interpreters in the languages of Central and Eastern Europe;

- targeted recruitment.

On the translation front, the Commission has developed and continues to develop technological applications to meet the challenges of multilingualism in an enlarged Community. For that purpose, the Commission has prepared a medium-term plan to ensure optimum cost/quality efficiency. The plan which has been presented to Parliament's working party on multilingualism provides for, in particular:

- increased control of requests for translations by establishing a code of good practice with the various Commission departments;

- differentiated treatment of the documents to be translated;

- steering language officials towards high added-value works;

- intensification of training in the languages of Central and Eastern Europe;

- optimum use of external translators;

- maximum use of the possibilities provided by translation assistance tools and telecommunications networks;

- synergy through interinstitutional cooperation.