You may only speak in your official tongue in this parliament...

international | eu | other press

Friday September 17, 2004 13:43

by iosaf

the end of linguistic diversity at the EU.

Curious procedural decision was made in the EU Parliament other day, as part of the ongoing "Catalan Language" question.

The Catalan deputies are now not allowed used their language in the chamber, and the majority will vote against the EU constitution as a result.

And understandably they're not happy about it.
So deputy Bernat Joan of the ERC (left republican catalan independence block) stood to speak to the other deputies in ...
german.

And the speaker of the parliament asked him to stop. He was not allowed continue.

There are more native speakers of German in the EU than there are of castillian spanish.
It is a langauge which is understood by more deputies in the chamber than for example -
italian, greek, danish, finnish.

Now this ought strike a chord with Irish people, as a long time ago, when Gaeilge was still an official debating language Mary Bonotti attempted to make her maiden speech to the parliament in Gaeilge, but was stopped by the then speaker of the parliament who was by the way an English conservative.
"I don't know what language you are speaking, but it is not one recognised here".
Bonotti finished her maiden speech in Italian, and everyone was very impressed not least her constituents.

But that trick can not be repeated today.

So now there is only one state with representatives in the EU parliament who are allowed speak more than one language -
The Belgians.

Who's representatives may legally address the parliament in either French (a snotty variety) or Flemish.

*********************************************

the 14th of June 2004, Minister Brian Cowen (FF) stated it would not be worth the bother to address the co-officiality question of the Catalan Language in the European Union.

"sure we speak enough languages already".

Comments (2 of 2)

They came a long way

by Rusty at Gaeilge

Fri Sep 17, 2004 15:52

I understand that Irish is not an officially recognised language, and therefore cannot be used in the EU parliament. So we can take it that Fianna Fail no longer believe in the promotion of the First Official Language of this statelet.
Shame on them.

yes.

by even rustier at gaielge

Fri Sep 17, 2004 19:04

interestingly enough in the years since Bonotti (Fine Gael) attempted to address the EU parliament "as gaeilge", the Irish language has been relogated to *an official but not working* language of the EU.

Thus you will still see gaeilge on your passport, and on occasions those of us with dificult to pronounce gaeilge names have to help the authorities decipher those passports- "yes baile atha cliath is dublin and réamhainm (neacha) is my name".

And quite ironically, in the mean time, Gaeilge has gone up in status in the Northern Ireland statelet, and most ironically of all, those who wish sit the new residency test for UK immigrants, are allowed the option of sitting the test in - English, Welsh, Scots gaelic and Gaeigle.
They are asked a range of questions which probe their understanding of British history and customs.
"cád é an sionnach?"
"cén fáth nach bhfuil aon bunreacht na Sasanaigh?"
"pé a scríobh Cromwell go braigh?"

All this however is little comfort to the Catalans who number ten million speakers and despite living and working and voting in thier language, despite being schooled and university educated in their language, may not use their language in the EU Parliament because a FF politician (who is not on record as having any linguistic achievement at all) decided it wouldn't be worth the effort.

And now to compound the insult, they are only allowed use Spanish. This apart from being grossly unfair is placing un-necessary and poorly thought pressure on Spanish claims to diversity. It also looks odd when the French government (perhaps the most centrist states of Europe) has launched a campaign to recognise and use the Catalan language in it's own Catalan speaking "province" the department of Rossilón. But now the EU representatives of that area, who wish to join their southern linguistic and cultural counterparts in a new European region, are only allowed speak French in the parliament. There is quite obviously something very silly about all this, and the excuses "we speak enough languages" or "we can't afford translators" are very very lame.