The EU has suspended all its job competitions following a court decision which could lead to the Maltese language being accepted in the application procedure.
The competitions have been suspended while European Commission lawyers examine a verdict handed down by the EU court last Thursday. The court ruled that Epso, the Commission’s recruitment office, was breaking its own rules by forcing applicants to use English, French or German in their applications.
It said job applicants should be free to use any of the 23 EU official languages in their correspondence and as their “second language” in Epso exam papers.
Recruiters should also respond to correspondence in the original language.
Maltese applicants already have the option to take written and oral exams in Maltese, but still have to include one of the three languages, usually English, as their second language.
The suspended competitions include a call for Maltese lawyer-linguists for the European Parliament and Council in Brussels, and Maltese linguistic assistants for the institutions in Luxembourg, among others.
The court said the current practice constituted discrimination because it “favours certain potential candidates, namely those who have a satisfactory knowledge of at least one of the designated languages”.
In a statement, the Commission said it was still examining the verdict.
Unless it chooses to appeal, it will be forced to change its application procedures to accommodate all 23 languages.
The decision is a victory for multilingualism. Italians study science in their mother tongue and are at forefront of field
The case was brought by Italy and Spain, focusing on three Epso job competitions in 2012 and 2013, for auditors, science consultants and security experts.The court annulled the outcome of the job competitions, although the Commission said successful applicants would not be affected by the decision.
It added: “The claim that English, French or German remain the most widely used languages [...] is a vague statement which is not supported by any specific evidence.”
A Maltese senior translator told the Times of Malta the decision would have little impact on Maltese applicants due to the status of English as a co-official language.
He noted, however, that English was still the lingua franca within EU institutions.
Alongside French and German, it constituted a practical “working language” for the purposes of internal mass communication, and someone without an understanding of any of the three was likely to struggle on a day-to-day basis, he said.
He added: “The decision is a victory for multilingualism. Italians, for example, study science in their mother tongue and they’re at the forefront of the field.
“Why should we discriminate because English is the dominant cultural language?” the translator said.