Council Regulation (EC) No 920/2005 of 13 June 2005 amending Regulation No 1 of 15 April 1958 determining the language to be used by the European Economic Community and Regulation No 1 of 15 April 1958 determining the language to be used by the European Atomic Energy Community and introducing temporary derogation measures from those Regulations
Date: 2005-06-13
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU institution, administrator, use of languages

18.6.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 156/3

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 920/2005

of 13 June 2005

amending Regulation No 1 of 15 April 1958 determining the language to be used by the European
Economic Community and Regulation No 1 of 15 April 1958 determining the language to be used
by the European Atomic Energy Community and introducing temporary derogation measures from
those Regulations

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community, and in particular Article 290 thereof,

establishing the European

the Council and to empower the Council to determine
unanimously, within a period of four years after the date
of application of
five-yearly
intervals thereafter, whether to put an end to that dero-
gation,

this Regulation and at

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community, and in particular Article 190 thereof,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in
particular Articles 28(1) and 41(1) thereof,

Article 1

Regulation No 1 is hereby amended as follows:

Whereas:

requested that

The Irish Government has
the Irish
language be accorded the same status as that accorded
to the national official
languages of the other Member
States and that the necessary amendments be made to
that effect to Council Regulation No 1 of 15 April 1958
determining the languages to be used by the European
Economic Community (1) and to Council Regulation
No 1 of 15 April 1958 determining the languages to
be
Energy
Community (2), which two Regulations are hereinafter
referred to as ‘Regulation No 1’.

European

Atomic

used

the

by

1. Article 1 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 1

The official
languages and the working languages of the
institutions of the European Union shall be Czech, Danish,
Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek,
Hungarian,
Lithuanian, Maltese,
Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.’;

Latvian,

Italian,

Irish,

It results from Articles 53 of the Treaty on European
Union and 314 of the Treaty establishing the European
the
Community that
authentic languages of each of these Treaties respectively.

the Irish language is one of

‘Article 4

2. Article 4 shall be replaced by the following:

The Irish Government stresses that, in accordance with
Article 8 of the Constitution of Ireland, the Irish language
as the national language is the first official language of
Ireland.

It

is appropriate to answer positively to the Irish
It
Government’s request and to amend Regulation No 1
is however appropriate to decide that,
accordingly.
the
for practical reasons and on a transitional basis,
to be
institutions of
bound by the obligation to draft and translate all acts,
including judgments of the Court of Justice, in the Irish
language. It is also appropriate to provide that such a
derogation be partial, to exclude from its scope Regu-
lations adopted jointly by the European Parliament and

the European Union are not

(1) OJ 17, 6.10.1958, p. 385/58. Regulation as last amended by the

2003 Act of Accession.

(2) OJ 17, 6.10.1958, p. 401/58. Regulation as last amended by the

2003 Act of Accession.

Regulations and other documents of general application shall
be drafted in the 21 official languages.’;

3. Article 5 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 5

The Official Journal of the European Union shall be published in
the 21 official languages.’

Article 2

By way of derogation from Regulation No 1 and for a
renewable period of
five years beginning on the day on
which this Regulation applies, the institutions of the European
Union shall not be bound by the obligation to draft all acts in
Irish and to publish them in that language in the Official Journal
of the European Union.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

L 156/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

18.6.2005

This Article shall not apply to Regulations adopted jointly by
the European Parliament and the Council.

mously whether to put an end to the derogation referred to in
that Article.

Article 3

Not later than four years after the date of application of this
Regulation and at five-yearly intervals thereafter, the Council
shall review the operation of Article 2 and determine unani-

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publi-
cation in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2007.

Article 4

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Luxembourg, 13 June 2005.

For the Council
The President

J. ASSELBORN