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Should English be the Official Language of the European Union?
2011–2015 гг.
DG Translation's workload is steadily rising, because of the constant expansion in the Commission's areas of activity and since more official EU languages were added when new members joined the EU in 2004 and 2007.This all costs a lot of money that could be used in much more effective ways such as solving integration problems, rural development, different educational conferences etc. If we believe that EU should be united in socio-economic ways, than single official language used in all EU institutions would seem a logical and rational way of bringing people together and it would also be an opportunity to cut on certain expenses, because there would not be a necessity for thousands of interpreters and translators (in 2006, there were 1,650 permanent plus an uncounted but large number of freelance translators, as well as 500 permanent plus 2,700 freelance interpreters) and billion euros spent only on language services . In these hard times, where ‘’every penny counts’’ and EU is in a serious budget crisis, it is essential to cut on certain expenses, that would also make work more rational, efficient and would save a money, thus reducing the budget deficit. Overall, I believe that the bureaucracy of the EU is seriously hampering the progress of the organization to function properly and changes must be implemented or it will become much too expensive and inefficient for EU to exist and it will eventually shatter and volatilize; just as previous excessively bureaucratic organizations have fell into oblivion.…
There are 23 official and working languages used in the EU What does this mean? This means that all documents may be sent to EU institutions and a reply received in any of these languages and EU regulations and other legislative documents are published in the official and working languages, as is the Official Journal.(1) So if we receive a copy of a certain document, let’s say 50 pages long, and there are 27 member states which have transferred some of their sovereignty – or lawmaking authority – to the EU, this means that they all must receive a precise translation of the document in all 23 languages (if it is needed). This idiotic bureaucracy costs a lot of money, and since the official documents are not usually 20 pages long, but much, much longer and translation costs money, this multiple language system causes serious issues.
