Expensive un-official languages
While some MEPs are trying to cut the number of official languages in EU, others are fighting to officialice their languages and have the same linguistic rights as others do. By Lander Arbelaitz (Brussels)
Despite the fact that twenty languages, soon to be 21, are official in the European Union (EU), not all the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) can speak in their mother toungue. Their languages are known as minority or regional languages and they are not official in the EU. Nowadays there are at least 15 MEPs in this situation. Joan i Mari Bernat is one of them. He is Catalonian but, he has to speak in either English, German, French or Spanish in the Parliament. This is despite the fact that Catalonian is spoken by ten million people. He thinks the subject of minority languages is a problem concerning the European Union, and that the EU should do something. He is leading a report on multilingualism in the European Parliament and proposes specific actions. On 9th October this report will be re-discussed at the European Parliament to go to plenary session later on.
According to Davyth A. Hicks, expert in minority languages and the editor in chief of Eurolang –Europe’s biggest news agency informing people about minority languages–, up to 50 million people in the EU speak a minority language. “Ten per cent of the population’s native language is not official in EU and if we put all of them together, they are like a big country”. According to UNESCO, in Europe there are 156 languages and in the report, Red Book on Endangered Languages: Europe, by Tapani Salminen, 83 languages are in danger of disappearing in few years. Seventy-six of European languages are from some countries that haven’t joined the EU. Besides the 21 official languages there are 60 indigenous languages plus migrant languages. Joan i Mari Bernat thinks it is a big problem, “it is a problem of rights”. He thinks Basque and Catalan, for example, should be on the same level as Danish or Maltese. Fabienne Giovanini is from Corsica and her language is not official either. “It is a drama for every people linked with his/her identity and talking about respect of the cultural diversity, there shouldn’t be any scale of values”.
One member (state), one language is the EU’s linguistic slogan. Before joining the EU, every applicant country has to decide which language will be the official. In January, Irish Gaelic will become official and it will be the 21st language. Translators are requireed for all the languages. In the Commission there are over 100 translators for English, French and German. Languages like Dutch and Spanish have around 80-90. The new Member State languages have smaller departments, but this is also linked to the time it takes to recruit suitably qualified staff. So there are already about 70 Hungarian translation staff for example.
Last November, the Commission published a communication entitled A Framework Strategy for Multilingualism. Slovakian Ján Figel is the Commissioner in charge of education, training, culture and multilingualism and presented the act. “One of the objectives of this communication is to maintain the multicultural nature of the EU institutions, based on the work of our professional translators and interpreters, so that we can continue to ensure effective communication between the union and all its citizens”. Joan i Mari Bernat doesn’t agree with this definition. He says it is not very clear what exactly the Commission defines as multilingualism, and he finds unacceptable if they only are talking about official languages. “It is a mistake when they say that all citizens have universal access to the EU project when stateless and regional languages are in fact excluded from it, despite their speakers are paying taxes which contribute to finance the project”.
To change the actual situation, he is leading a report on multilingualism in the European Parliament. This report has been made in co-operation with experts in sociolinguistics, minority languages, and linguistic issues in general. The proposal concludes that a High Level Group on Multilingualism will be established to analyse progress made by member states and a ministerial conference to assess progress. This will be followed by a further Communication on the matter. Davyth A. Hicks was one of the assistants on the report and he thinks the campaign is looking good. In his opinion, the liberals, the greens, the socialist and left-wing MEPs will support the report. Otherwise, as Joan i Mari Bernat also knows, Spanish EPPs are doing all they can against the report. When they were asked for an interview to talk about the report, they refused it.
Furthermore, there are vastly different views within in the EU about its multilingual way of being. Some MEPs, most of them from UK, are asking to change the actual system and put English as the only official language in EU. Nevertheless, this proposal is not supported by many other MEPs, as they say they also have the right to speak in their own language.
James Nicholson is from Belfast, in Northern Ireland, but he doesn’t speak Irish Gaelic. “I only speak English, because I think English native speakers we are too lazy to learn more languages”. He is an MEP for the right of centre party EPP, and doesn’t really like the idea of letting more languages be official. “We should cut the number of official languages; I defend the right of each nationality to have the documents in the own language, but it is hard and expensive to work with the actual system”.
Economic reasons
The high cost of including new languages is one of the strongest arguments for those who are against the officialization of minority languages. To use an example, in three months the minority Irish language will be the 21st language. The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern said that from January 2007 onwards, the annual costs to the EU of the Irish language services are estimated at around 3.5 million euros. The Irish government has committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. The total budget of the EU in 2006 was 121 billion euros and 1% is expended on the actual translation system.
Johan Häggman is the advisor on Regional and Minority Languages for Alliance of Liberals for Europe (ALD). He is from the Swedish minority in Finland. Each time people talk about the expensive cost of including new languages he thinks it is an excuse. “Nowadays, 40% of the budget of EU is expended in agriculture and 1% in languages. Having 21 official languages, it is a drop in the ocean to officialise five more", says Johan Häggman. Eva Bidania is the person in charge with co-ordinating the Youth of European Free Alliance (EFAY). 32 political parties, all of them from countries without any state, constitute this political group. She is Basque and she thinks in Europe two languages are the most important: French and English. If new languages are official, nothing will change in her opinion; those two languages will continue being working languages. “I don’t mind if all the MEPs have to speak in English or French; but the EU should guarantee the languages are spoken in their own territory. Linguistic diversity is the history and essence of Europe, and it is EU’s issue to protect them”. Davyth A. Hicks has a similar way of thinking. “I’m Cornish and I don’t ask to right to go to the European Parliament and speak in Cornish; what I ask is the right to write to the EU in our language and have an answer in it. With officialization of the languages, we would put all the languages in the same level, because, why can Estonian or Danish be official and not Basque?”
Officialization's consequences
Officialization is one of the largest petitions of the minority language’s speakers. But what are the consequences for a language if it’s recognized as official in the EU? First of all, they’ll have the right to have all the documents in this language. Despite the working languages being English, French and German, speakers of an official language can ask for documents in their language and the EU has provide them. Furthermore, the citizen can write to the European institutions and have an answer in the same language. Johan Häggman also thinks that if a language is recognized as official, the way people will see that language will change. “A language must be attractive for young people, and if it’s official, they will learn and it won’t disappear”. Davyth A. Hicks says it would be a very important symbolic help. “Nowadays, children learn Cornish at school, but after they can’t use anywhere. If it was official, at the public places they would have to be able to speak it, for example, at the post office”. The Corsican politician Favienne Giovannini finds officialization as the only solution to save their language. At last, Joan i Mari Bernat holds the opinion that officialization is not “just” to have the right to speak this language in the EP, moreover, it would be important for the recognition of language dignity. “It’s important to place correctly our languages”.
The Copenhagen criteria are the rules that define whether a nation is eligible to join the European Union. These membership criteria were laid down at the June 1993 European Council in Copenhagen, Denmark, from which they take their name. It was based on minority protection and the states applying to join the EU have to respect these points. Otherwise, Häggman and Hicks agree when they say some countries in the actual EU don’t respect what they are asking to other countries. “France and Greece are the worst countries. France is destroying all the minority languages and the same happens with the Macedonian minority in Greece, they are second division people. It is incredible that nobody in the EU does anything”, Davyth A. Hicks says angrily.
According to the Catalonian MEP, Joan i Mari Bernat, other people don’t care about little countries issues. “Generally, they don’t mind our fight, they have their official language and now they say it is expensive to officialise more languages”. He found also some support in several groups, even in unexpected members. “For instance, when I proposed that one of the working languages should be from the new member states, and I suggested, together with English, French and German, Polish, immediately I found solidarity from some Polish members”. Davyth A. Hicks and Eva Bidania also think other countries, even the small ones, should have the right. “They don’t mind stateless countries petitions”.
Uncertain Future
The future for minority languages is not easy to predict. While some people are asking for more languages to be official, others are demanding to cut the number of official languages; at last, some say everyone has the right to speak in his/her own language, but with only one language per member state.
Eva Bidania, the EFAY co-ordinator sees the future as positive. “I believe in our project and I think we will get our goals”. Joan i Mari Bernat doesn’t know how everything will turnout, but he hopes he’s effort will lead to a successful end. The Cornish expert in minority languages, Davyth A. Hicks is cautious: “Some languages will get their goals, for example, Catalan, Basque, Galician, spoken in North Spain, and Irish are doing well their way. On the other hand, other minority languages are in really danger of disappearing and I don’t see their future so assured. We will have to continue working”. The member of the Swedish minority in Finland, Johan Häggman, sees the future with optimist eyes. "20 years ago, big language's speakers were against officialization of minority languages saying they were useless. Nowadays, the only thing they say is it is expensive. The day will arrive we will have our language rights".
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Zapatero’s “tricky” helpDespite the fact 21 languages will be official in the EU, Basque, Galician, and Catalan have a special status. During last few years, there were several tries to officialize those languages, but none were successful. The last try was when Jose Luis Zapatero –the Spanish president– asked the European Parliament, EP, for Basque, Catalan and Galician to be made official. The European Parliament didn’t accept the proposal, and in 25th May the EP accepted the right to citizens to send and receive letters in those languages. Nevertheless, some people in the Basque Country, Galicia and Catalonia don’t think Zapatero really wanted these languages to be official. The fact is that the Spanish president is asking these languages to be official when they are not official in Madrid. “It is a hard contradiction. I don't think that Zapatero is asking the officialization of our languages by heart, but by arithmetical ratios in the Spanish parliament”, says Joan i Mari Bernat. Eva Bidania, co-ordinator of EFAY, agrees with the Catalonian politician. “It is a tricky step. Now,we Basques are more divided, because some can write in Basque, but those living in Navarre and in the French part can’t. I think he doesn’t want to help us, it just was a political strategy”.
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