Maltese singled out once more

Maltese as an official EU language is frequently being referred to as an unnecessary or extra expense whenever the issue is raised in EU debates.

A recent example is a report adopted by the European Parliament on the translation costs of the EU institutions penned by Alexander Stubb, a Finnish MEP member of the EPP group.

In 2005, the EU spent €511 million in translation costs.

While underlining the importance of multilinguism as one of Europe's main assets, Mr Stubb singled out Maltese, together with Finnish and Swedish, as clear examples where costs can be cut.

"Finnish, Swedish or Maltese cannot be the only working languages of the institutions. However, there is no need to translate everything into all the official languages.

"For example, in the committees of the Parliament, it is sufficient to have translations in languages used by the members of the committee in question. Other translations can be provided if requested", Mr Stubb said.

A parliamentary question to the European Commission by Spanish MEP Maria Badia I Cutchet contained similar remarks about Maltese. Spain is currently fighting for regional languages, such as Catalan and Basque, to be recognised by the EU. "Today, the EU includes member states such as Malta, with 400,000 people, and others such as Germany, with 82 million.

"Despite these major changes, the EU has not adapted to the new situation as regards language arrangements, resulting in significant discrimination", she said.

"With this in mind, is the Commission intending to look at how the language arrangements can be adapted to meet the new needs of a EU with 500 million people," she asked.

In his reply, Multilinguism Commissioner Leonard Orban did not join the debate on whether Catalan can be recognised as an official language like Maltese despite being spoken by a much larger population.

"All official languages were put on the same footing and that is still the case today," he replied.

This is not the first time Maltese has been singled out.

Several weeks ago, German MEP Ingeborg Grable said in Parliament the EU must start using only a few official languages. She referred to Maltese as an example of spending unnecessary resources. Later, while speaking on the Allied Group's EU TV programme, Tieqa fuq l-Ewropa, the German MEP qualified her comments saying she had referred to Maltese only as an example.

The same, she said, applied to other small languages such as the Baltic and Scandinavian languages.