Stay informed about the latest updates on the European Union for free.
Subscribe to our myFT Daily Digest email, which provides a comprehensive roundup of European Union news every morning.
A Spanish proposal requires Brussels to translate an extensive amount of EU law into Basque, Galician, and Catalan. This request adds further pressure to the already strained translation service of Europe.
In his efforts to secure a fresh mandate as the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez has asked the EU to include these three languages in its list of 24 official languages in order to gain support from smaller regional parties.
If all member states agree unanimously, the plan will demand the translation of the complete acquis of EU laws, international treaties, and thousands of proposals and decisions made by the European Commission over the past 60 years.
Irish became an official language of the EU in 2007, but translation of all documents wasn’t completed until 2022 due to difficulties attracting sufficient translators to fill the required positions.
According to François Grin, a professor of translation and interpreting at the University of Geneva, the main issue lies in the technical feasibility of the task. It depends on the availability of competent translators who can deliver within a reasonable timeframe.
The translation services are already facing challenges, causing delays in the EU’s legislative system. All EU laws must be translated into all 24 languages before they can take effect. Currently, up to 180 legislations await parliamentary approval before the next EU elections in June. Each of these legislations must be translated before MEPs can give their approval.
The directorate general for translation’s report for 2022 states that employees faced extremely tight deadlines and limited predictability while translating voluminous packages due to the influx of proposals related to the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis.
Although there will be fewer new proposals when parliament resumes in September, there is still a significant backlog of texts in the later stages of translation, awaiting the finalization by lawyer linguists, according to a parliament official.
Parliamentary officials estimate that it takes 30 days to translate every 100 pages of legislation. In 2022, the commission translated almost 2.6 million pages, which is slightly lower than the record year of 2.77 million pages in 2021.
As the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, Spain has the task of convincing other member states of the value of these proposed changes. An EU official stated that the council will “examine” the Spanish language request, but it is too early to determine if it will be on the ministers’ agenda in September.
This proposal serves as an incentive for Pedro Sánchez’s potential ally, the Together for Catalonia party, which has additional demands relating to Catalan independence.
Catalan, Basque, and Galician are already official languages within Spain.
According to the Spanish census for 2021, 2.1 million Catalans, 1 million Galicians, and 350,000 Basque residents speak these respective languages as their mother tongues. However, Spanish is more widely spoken as the primary language in each autonomous region.
Since 2018, Pedro Sánchez has been acting as the prime minister, supported by various left-wing and separatist parties. However, an inconclusive general election in July has left him needing the support of Catalan and Basque parties to maintain a majority and remain in office.
Aleix Clarió, an aide to Together’s founder, former Catalan president and MEP Carles Puigdemont, highlighted that the Socialists had made a similar promise in 2022 but failed to follow through.
“They have broken every promise and now they promise again.”
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
