EU law, languages and institutions part 5

5. Languages in the EU

outline

  1. spoken languages

  2. language status in the EU

  3. EU legal language

5.1 Spoken languages

ethnologue = ethnological catalogue

overview of how many languages are spoken in the world, dialects are considered as different languages

includes different sign languages (perhaps that’s why there’s so many languages in total)

few languages left in Europe: 239; 3.5% of the languages for 26.3% of the population → state centralization, centralization of power = states impose a national language over the area

  • France end of 19th century had different dialects, this changed because of centralization; WWI drove people from different areas to the fronts = standardized language was needed to communicate

compared to the rest of the world Europe has few languages (on the entire continent)

figures include countries not member of the EU → exclude those = 170 languages in the EU

SIL (summer institute of languages) splits up as much as possible, even languages linguists wouldn’t recognize as such

languages of recent migration are not counted as languages of a country (= Turkish is not recognized as a language in Belgium)

in the EU different language families

  • indo-European (most) = Germanic, Romance, Celtic, Slavic, Greek

  • Fino-Uralic = Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian

  • Afro-Aziatic = Maltese

  • Altaic = Turkish (Cyprus)

  • Basque (Spain)

German has the most native speakers → 16% of the EU

English best known as non-native language → 38% of the EU

  • 51% of the EU speaks English as native or non-native language (UK still included in these figures)

  • reason why legislation is not only written or used for legislation: merely half of the EU can speak English (as first of foreign language), half the people of the EU wouldn’t understand the law

croatia (HR) not included in the figures (2013, figures date back to 2012)

5.2 Language status in the EU

5.2.1 National official languages

EU member states 28 different recognized/de facto official languages

  • some less speakers in EU than some languages that are not official (Maltese as an official language has 400.000 speakers >< Russian as a non-official language has 1.000.000 speakers)

    • Russian speakers in Latvia didn’t receive full citizenship and were called non-citizens (special passport); they can become citizens if they learn Latvian and pass the exam, many Russian speakers refused (Russian dominant until 1991); now: Latvians struggle with this fact because the Russian speakers in Latvia are heavily influenced by Russian media and closed off towards Latvians (because they weren’t allowed to become citizens if they didn’t learn Latvian)

only 24 of the 28 national official languages are official languages in the EU

  • not recognized: Catalan, Basque and Galician, Luxembourgish, Turkish

  • why: state failed to request official recognition of the language → member states can propose the languages, but most countries only propose one

    • Sanchez spain: proposed the three other Spanish languages (because he was supported in his minority government by the Basque and Catalan nationalists), chances are only Catalan will be accepted, because other languages can cause financial issues and difficulty finding interpreters and translators (especially for Basque and Galician)

5.2.2 EU Official languages

which ones

  • Bulgarian (BG)

  • Czech (CS)

  • Croatian (HR)

  • Danish (DA)

  • Dutch (NL)

  • English (EN)

  • Estonian (ET)

  • Finnish (FI)

  • French (FR)

  • German (DE)

  • Greek (EL)

  • Hungarian (HU)

  • Irish (GA)

  • Italian (IT)

  • Latvian (LV)

  • Lithuanian (LT)

  • Maltese (MT)

  • Polish (PL)

  • Portuguese (PT)

  • Romanian (RO)

  • Slovak (SK)

  • Slovenian (SL)

  • Spanish (ES)

  • Swedish (SV)

  • not Basque, Catalan, Galician, Luxembourgish and Turkish

    • how many Catalans: 6 million (more than Latvian, Estonian and Maltese) = chances are this will be accepted, it also already has a special status in the EU

what is an official language

  • defined by Council’s regulation 1/58 (first EEC regulation ever adopted; kind of like a Bible for the EU institutions)

  • until 2007 difference between official languages and authentic languages (original languages of the treaties)

what does it mean to be an official language

  1. Citizens (and undertakings) or member states can choose one of the official languages for their written communication with an EU institution, the EU institution will reply in that language (art. 2)

  2. the EC chooses the official language of the member state to communicate with that member state or with its citizens (or undertakings) (art. 3). If more than one official language is used in that member state, the internal law of the State applies

    1. only for written communication: if you want to speak, you have to speak in French or English

  3. all legal acts or general application must be drafted in all the original languages: The Official Journal of the EU is published in all the official languages (art. 4&5)

    1. there’s chance of adoption = the text must be available in the 24 languages, because every member of the Parliament and Council has to be able to read the text; if there’s amendments, the text has to be translated again (= translation services have a lot of work to do)

    2. legislation has to be available in all 24 languages to make sure the citizens understand it

    3. for internal purposes, the institutions can ignore these rules

  4. institutions, especially the Court of Justice, may define their own language rules (art. 6&7)

    1. Court of Justice uses French → all judges have to have a good proficiency level of French, deliberations are held in French, first version of the ruling is also drafted in French and then translated

    2. but: you can bring a case to court in any of the 24 official languages → during the proceedings this language will be used, if there’s another party, there will be interpretation and translation available so that this party can use his or her own language

5.2.3 Alternative status

authentic languages: language in which the treaties are drafted and recognized as authentic → all versions are equally authentic (you cannot say the French version is a translation; there’s no “translation” as this would mean it’s not equal to the other versions)

  • only really played a role before 2007 because Irish and Maltese were not yet granted official status = we had fewer official languages than authentic languages; there weren’t enough interpreters and translators yet, but today the lists of authentic and official are the same

other languages: languages with semi-official status in the EU; languages must be recognized by the constitution of a member state or the use of this language as national language must be authorized by law

  • Catalan is the only language with this status

    • = Catalan citizens can communicate with the institutions in Catalan, but when they write something, it must be translated in Spanish (and paid for by the Spanish government), this is then given to the institution which answers in Spanish (again translated into Catalan)

    • = Catalan may be used in Parliament, in Committee meetings → but: interpreting into Catalan is not provided, only from Catalan (= passive language)

    • = legislation is translated into Catalan and the treaty has a Catalan version, but it’s not published into the Official Journal (= legislation is normally published there to make it official, not the case for Catalan versions); the Catalan version can be read on the website of the Council, but only serves as a consultation device (because the version has no status of law), the Spanish version is the one that counts

5.2.4 Working languages

in EU terminology: working language = official language (= authentic language) → in Brussels 24 working languages

in the press another meaning: French, German and English are presented as working languages of the EU → in EU terminology they are called procedural languages

  • most institutions use two to three procedural languages (English > French > German)

    • depends on context → French for education and culture; English for monetary (financial market is entirely in English)

95% of the people speaking English as procedural language are not native-speakers (//Latin → people could write it, not speak it)

the other bodies of the EU can communicate in some languages, but not all (Europol)

  • some agencies restricted their amount of languages; certain undertakings cannot speak in French, English or German (e.g. during trade mark meetings) and want to use their own language, but this is prohibited there → only the big five languages are used (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish)

5.3 EU legal language

eurojargon, eurospeak, euro mumbo-jumbo

English main procedural language (but: 95% of the people who use it, don’t speak it as a native language) = EU legal language → special, often ridiculed as it sounds awkward

examples

  • open method of coordination

    • method applied in institutions to reach certain goals without hard law (law on paper, obligations)

    • kind of soft law: EU sets targets (the member states should do this) and usually there’s a deadline (by this date, the member states have to reach this goal); the member states decide on their own how they’ll reach the goal and there’s no repercussions if they don’t fulfill it

    • member states that don’t reach their goals suffer face loss as the EU publishes rankings, there’s also press conferences to publicize the rankings (name-blame-shame strategy)

    • used in social policy: by 2030 70% of the active population must have job; the member state can chose how to achieve this, if it fails, the EU uses media (stick)

  • comitology

    • the structure of different committees supervising the Commission; in these committees we find people who were not elected, but often are considered experts in that area of expertise

  • exclusive competences

    • areas in which only the EU can legislate, can make decisions = trade with non-member states and agriculture (customs union, trade policy, etc.) (as opposed to shared competences)

  • common market organization

    • EU decides how much products will cost → minimum prices for agricultural products, minima laid down by common market organizations, prices are set and methods are developed to keep the prices in this range

language and terminology of EU agreements, treaties, legislation reflects

  • compromise (difference in legal culture)

  • multicultural decision making (difference countries)

  • multilingual/multicultural text drafting (difference in language and culture

5.3.1 Compromise

EU = ménage à 27 with complicated marriage contract that has been revised several times

  • Treaty on European Union and Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union = 5th major revision since Treaty of Rome (1958)

    • first: Treaty of Rome 1958

    • second: Treaty of Maastricht 1993

    • third: Treaty of Amsterdam 1999

    • fourth: Treaty of Nice 2003

    • fifth: Treaty of Lisbon 2009

  • why union: used to avoid federation, but Union was not actually favoured by the Baltic states (Soviet Union), nevertheless it’s a compromise between federation and community

2 main principles for EU Treaty and law makers

  • avoid language that suggests the EU is a state

    • constitution, minister (which became high representative), government, embassy (delegation), tax (own resources), the f-word (federation)

  • avoid language that can be interpreted as national

    • civil service (public service), company (undertaking), lorry (large goods vehicle (LGV)), subsidy (state aid → this is what a state can invest in its own companies, subsidies can only be given by the EU)

Undertakings entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest or having the character of a revenue-producing monopoly shall be subject to the rules contained in the Treaties, in particular the rules on competition, in so far as the application of such rule does not obstruct the performance, in law or in fact, of the particular tasks assigned to them. (TFEU, art. 106).

  • services of general economic interest in EU (SGEI) = public service (in state language)

  • public service in EU = civil service (in state language)

  • public service (state language) = electricity, water supply, transportation = what we need to live

democratic deficit: one of the co-legislators (Council) is not elected and sometimes the elected institution (Parliament) is not included in the decision-making process = there’s a democratic deficit because people don’t understand what is written, so they don’t understand the law (they are supposed to adhere to)

also leads to an excessive use of acronyms, which change regularly

  • SGP = Stability and Growth Pact (facilitate and maintain stability of EMU)

  • EDP = Excessive Deficit Procedure (action against member states that exceed the budgetary deficit ceiling imposed by the SGP)

  • CSDP = Common Security and Defence Policy (former: ESDP = European Security and Defence Policy; this acronym is now used for European Single Procurement Document)

  • BEPP (niets gevonden)

  • SGEI = Services of General Economic Interests

5.3.2 Multicultural Decision-Making

differences in legal culture (chapter 4)

Fruit (Council directive 2001/113/EC relating to fruit jams, jellies and marmalades and sweetened chestnut purée intended for human consumption, Annex III, A)

  • “For the purposes of this directive, the following definitions shall apply: 1. Fruit:

    • fresh, sound fruit, free from deterioration, containing all its essential constituents and sufficiently ripe for use, after cleaning, removal of blemishes, topping and tailing,

    • for the purposes of this Directive, tomatoes, the edible parts of rhubarb stalks, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and watermelons are considered to be fruit.”

  • = for legislation on fruit jams, you have to define what the fruits are; by adding a scope note (for the purposes of this directive) it’s clear for every member state what is meant in this directive

  • if the rules don’t apply to a specific product, the farmer cannot sell the product (cucumber jelly for example)

  • different cultures have different perspectives on fruit = you cannot discriminate products, in legislation EU jargon defines what the term means

chocolate/vegelate: chocolate wars

  • legislation on chocolate about the share of cocoa and cocoa butter in chocolate → you can only add up to 5% of other vegetable fats equivalent to chocolate butter (palm oil for example), if you add more vegetable fats, the chocolate becomes cheapers

  • UK joins in 1973, there already was legislation on chocolate and cocoa butter content → UK didn’t meet the legislation = chocolate was excluded from the accession agreement with the UK, no free movement of chocolate between Uk and the continent because the chocolate didn’t meet the EU standards and because the other member states were not willing to change their own standards

  • UK chocolate is much cheaper, other member states considered this to be unfair competition

  • UK chocolate that did meet the requirements, could be traded

  • decision lasted 25 years, in 2000 new legislation → we’ll not call the British chocolate chocolate, we’ll call it vegelate (first suggestion, didn’t sound appetising and the Brits would have to change everything) = compromise: family chocolate

5.3.3 Multilingual/multicultural text drafting

< 90s: acquis and Advocate-General (French source) → based on the area of law

> 90s: opt-out, governance (English source) → based on the area of corporate

but: most people who use English as procedural language, don’t have English as a native language

before the 90s the French language was used a source, since the accession of the Scandinavian countries this changed

opt out: exception requested by member states to the application of law in a particular area

governance: corporate language, opt out as well (it was used in the context of no longer wanting to receive advertising in your mailbox)

problematic features of the EU English source text

  • noun stacking → five or six nouns in a row without prepositions = you don’t know how the words relate to one another

  • vague and/or fashionable business terminology (governance, full cycle commitment) → words don’t really mean anything anymore

  • increasing terminological confusion and vagueness over time (common policy) → common commercial policy, common agricultural policy (used to signify the exclusive competence of the EU), now: common foreign and security policy (not exclusive competence)

  • constantly changing names of treaties, agreements, agencies

  • complex syntax with unclear relationships between clauses and phrases → Eu tries to use plain language, it reformulates difficult texts into texts that are more easily understandable to the public (legally untrained readers) because everyone is supposed to know the law and adhere to it