Extract from PRESS RELEASE

2667th Council Meeting

General Affairs and External Relations

GENERAL AFFAIRS

Luxembourg, 13 June 2005

http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/gena/85437.pdf

9499/05 (Presse 131) pp. 14-16

GENERAL AFFAIRS

EU languages* – Council conclusions

The Council adopted a Regulation granting the Irish language the status of official and working language of the European Union (9645/05 and 10020/05 ADD 1).

Following their inclusion, the number of official and working languages of the European institutions is fixed at 21[i].

The Regulation, which will apply from 2007, amends the 1958 Regulations determining the languages to be used by the EEC and Euratom.

The Council also adopted the following conclusions:

" 1. These conclusions relate to languages other than the languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 whose status is recognised by the Constitution of a Member State on all or part of its territory or the use of which as a national language is authorised by law.

2. The Council considers that, in the framework of efforts being made to bring the Union closer to all its citizens, the richness of its linguistic diversity must be taken more into consideration.

3. The Council believes that allowing citizens the possibility of using additional languages in their relations with the Institutions is an important factor in strengthening their identification with the European Union's political project.

4. The official use of the languages referred to in paragraph 1 will be authorised at the Council on the basis of an administrative arrangement concluded between the latter and the requesting Member State, and possibly by another Union Institution or body on the basis of a similar administrative arrangement.

5. These arrangements will be concluded in accordance with the Treaty and with the provisions adopted for its implementation and must comply with the conditions below. The direct or indirect costs associated with implementation of these administrative arrangements by the Union's Institutions and bodies will be borne by the requesting Member State.

(a) Making public of acts adopted in codecision by the European Parliament and the Council

The government of a Member State will be able to send the European Parliament and the Council a certified translation of acts adopted in codecision into one of the languages referred to in paragraph 1. The Council will add that translation to its archives and provide a copy of it on request. The Council will ensure that these translations are published on its Internet site. In both cases, attention will be drawn to the fact that the translations in question do not have the status of law.

(b) Speeches to a meeting of the Council and possibly other Union Institutions or bodies

The government of a Member State will, if necessary, be able to ask the Council, and possibly other Institutions or bodies (European Parliament or Committee of the Regions), for permission to use one of the languages referred to in paragraph 1 in speeches by one of the members of the Institution or body in question at a meeting (passive interpreting). In the case of the Council, this request will in principle be granted, provided it is made reasonably in advance of the meeting and the necessary staff and equipment are available.

Member States will be able to adopt a legal act providing that, if one of their citizens wishes to send a communication to a Union Institution or body in one of the languages referred to in paragraph 1, he or she shall send the communication to a body designated by that Member State. That body will send the Institution or body in question the text of the communication, with a translation into the language of the Member State referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958. The same procedure will apply mutatis mutandis to the reply from the Institution or body in question.

Where the Union Institutions or bodies have a fixed period of time in which to reply, that period will commence from the date on which the Institution or body in question receives the translation into one of the languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 from the Member State. The period will cease on the date on which the Union Institution or body sends its reply to the competent body of the Member State in the latter language.

The Council invites the other Institutions to conclude administrative arrangements on this basis."