0.6.3.2. Resolution on the multilingualism of the European Community

The European Parliament,

- having regard to Article 217 of the EEC Treaty,

- having regard to Articles 1 and 6 of Council Regulation Nº 1 of 15 April 1958 as amended by the 1972 and 1979 Acts of Accession,

- having regard to Rule 61 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on the Rules of Procedure and Petitions and the opinions of the Political Affairs Committee and the Committee on Youth, Culture, Education, Information and Sport (Doc. 1-306/82),

A. whereas any limitation of the number of languages used by the European Parliament would interfere with the democratic nature of Parliament,

B. whereas discrimination against certain languages in favour of others in the european Parliament would be an infringement of the democratic voting rights of Community citizens as they should be able to elect their representatives exclusively on the basis of political criteria and of who will best represent their interests, without any additional linguistic criteria being laid down,

C. whereas all Members of Parliament are entitled to equal treatment irrespective of their active or passive knowledge of languages,

D. whereas, although the costs entailed by the multilingualisme of the Community are considerable, they nevertheless represent only about 2% of the Community's total budget,

1 Unequivocally affirms that the official languages and the working languages of the Community institutions are Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek and Italian;

2 Confirms the rule that there is to be absolute equality between the Community languages, whether used actively or passively, in writing or orally, at all meetings of Parliament and its bodies;

3 Supports any measure to speed up its work and to effect savings in connection with the Community's language arrangements, provided such measures are compatible with the principle that all the languages have equal status;

4 Urges, in particular, continued research into machine translation systems and other technological possibilities which may reduce costs;

5 Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.