July 2004

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IRELAND WILL SEEK OFFICIAL AND WORKING LANGUAGE STATUS FOR IRISH IN THE EU (Irish Times)

July 2004 – The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, announced on 14 July that the Irish Government is to start discussions with the European Commission and with other Member States with a view to reach full recognition for Irish in the EU, as both an official and working language. Such move represents a turnabout in the government’s attitude towards this matter, as during its six months’ EU presidency it has not supported the strong demands from a majority of Irish MP’s and organisations. In order to achieve this objective the Irish government will focus the discussions on securing agreement on the practical modalities, on the basis of the EEC Regulation 1/1958, which is the legal instrument that governs the EU Institutions’ official and working language regime. According to such regulation, Member states which have more than one official language may request that its official languages be included in the EU’s language regime as official and working languages; however, Ireland did not request this when it joined the Common Market in 1973 and has not attempted to do so ever since. Now, with the likely new status, EU laws and official documents will be issued in Irish and MEPs will have direct translation in all committee and plenary meetings in the European Parliament, in addition to the already granted language rights on account of its “Treaty language” status. Such status provides that the European Constitutional Treaty is to be published in Irish as an authentic version and that citizens have the right to address the EU institutions in Irish and have an answer in the same language. According to the pressure group Stádas, whose campaign calling for the full status of Irish in the EU has received a huge support from the public, this historical step will contribute enormously to the language’s prestige and it will also increase its use.