EU: Irish could be approved as an official and working language of the EU within the next two weeks as part of a deal that would also enhance the status of languages such as Basque, Catalan and Luxemburgish.
EU ambassadors in Brussels yesterday discussed a proposal to make Irish the 21st official and working language of the EU and to recognise languages that have a constitutional status within a member state or are national languages. All legislation approved by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, where national governments meet, would be translated into Irish and interpretation from Irish would be available at European Parliament plenary sessions and some council meetings.
The commission estimates that the cost of translation, interpretation, publication and legal services involved in making Irish an official EU language would be just under €3.5 million a year.
This compares with an average annual cost of €46 million for each of the current 20 official languages. The cost of making Irish an official and working language would be borne by the European institutions. If the proposal is approved, citizens would be allowed to correspond with the EU institutions in those languages. National governments requesting such an enhanced status would, however, have to foot the translation bill.
EU officials said yesterday said that the proposal satisfied Spanish concerns that Irish should not have its status enhanced without a move to recognise its own minority languages.
If the proposal is adopted, the new arrangements for the use of Irish in the EU would come into effect on January 1st, 2007.
