Pumping up the Volume of Europe's Multilingualism
The European Union has a New Year's challenge: to assimilate three new languages in 2007. The EU, already burdened with 20 official languages, officially promotes linguistic diversity but often defaults to English. Bulgarian, Romanian and Gaelic will become official EU languages on Jan. 1, further complicating Europe's ability to communicate.
Since its inception, the EU has been multilingual and working with multiple languages has always proved challenging. The interpreting and translating require large amounts of money and linguistic finesse. But in this Babel-like environment, English often ends up being the language used in official business.
Currently, the EU's three main institutions employ approximately 4,000 interpreters and translators. Another 1,500 freelancers are also used. This costs EU taxpayers close to 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) each year, "less than one percent of the total budget," as the European Commission likes to stress.
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