Translation of EU laws by new members

March 19, 2004

A snippet of translation-related news for you courtesy of Le Nouvel Observateur: more than half of the ten countries that are going to join the European Union on May 1st still haven't finished translating 85,000 pages of European laws into their national language. This could lead to serious legal problems. Indeed, European laws can't be applied by a country if they haven't been published in its official language.

It's hardly a surprise that the issue of languages should be so paramount in the EU, with so many of them being spoken on what is a relatively small landmass. <smug>The EU can't function without us translators and interpreters</smug> and I wonder whether Esperanto will ever be considered a better option than having to translate and interpret in so many combinations of languages?

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Posted by céline on March 19, 2004
Culture

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