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Basque used for the first time at the EU Council of Ministers

Source : Culture Europe International (http://www.culture-europe-international.org)
01 49 40 72 46 - contact@culture-europe-international.org
2, rue de la Liberté, 93526 Saint-Denis cedex 02

Rubrique : Brèves

du 29/11/2007 00:00 au 15/01/2008 00:00
Paris 75007 France (Ile-de-France)



Texte : Basque was used for the first time on sixteenth of november in the Council of Ministers of the European Union, by Mrs Miren Azkarate, Basque Minister for Culture and government spokeswoman, at the Council of Ministers meeting on Education, Culture and Youth.
Speaking to the press she called for official recognition of Basque at the EU level saying it would bring Basques “closer to Europe.”

The step forward in normalizing the presence of Basque, an official language in the Spanish state, at the centre of the EU, reminded Mrs Azkarate that what should be normal has become news. She argued that, "it is not logical that official languages in different areas of the territory of the European Union have limited recognition by the central agencies of the EU. That is not good either for languages, that is for the general public that we speak of, or the EU itself to be so distanced from that public. Rather, recognition and official usage would take us further.”

For Basque to be used at EU Council meetings, the intervention must be announced in advance and the translation given to the translators for its to be translated into the official languages of the EU. Currently, plans are being made for Welsh to have this same provision.

To date Basque usage at the EU level is limited to the following areas:
-Written communications from citizens and the institutions and organs of the EU, these letters are translated into an official language, processed in that language, with the answer translated into Basque;
-Speeches in Basque at the Committee of the Regions (CoR) meetings;
-Basque Autonomous Community legislation adopted by the co-decision procedure by the European Parliament (EP) and the Council
-Translation of some general EU documentation into Basque.

The involvement of the Basque, Catalan, and Galician autonomous governments in the EU decision-making process is one of the claims that have been requested since the accession of Spain to the European Union.

Source: Eurolang 2007 - Davyth Hicks

Date de publication : 29/11/2007


Inséré le : 29/11/2007 16:10