Romania's enthusiasm 'can only boost the EU'

ROMANIA: Romanian commissioner for multilingualism stresses benefits of diversity, writes Jamie Smyth in Brussels

ROMANIA:Romanian commissioner for multilingualism stresses benefits of diversity, writes Jamie Smythin Brussels

The EU will benefit from a larger market, enhanced security and greater cultural richness due to Romania's and Bulgaria's membership of the union.

Romania is also better prepared for membership than many of the 10 states that joined in the last enlargement, in May 2004, according to Bucharest's nominee to the European Commission, Leonard Orban.

Mr Orban, who took over the post of commissioner for multilingualism on Monday, also pledged his support for the introduction of Irish as the 21st official language of the EU in an interview with The Irish Times.

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"It is very important to retain the linguistic diversity of the union. This is what makes us different to the US," said Mr Orban. "I am not at all a supporter of the lingua franca - English is not enough. There is a link between multilingualism and culture, education and competitiveness." In 2007, Irish, Romanian and Bulgarian join the 20 other existing official languages. This means official documents must be translated into these languages, and interpretation should be made available in the EU institutions such as the parliament, commission and council.

However, due to a shortage of Irish interpreters, the EU institutions will initially only be able to provide a limited service. So who is to blame, the EU or the Government, which lobbied hard to get Irish official status? "I don't want to blame anyone. One of my first duties will be to assess this problem, get the detail and then find the cause and the solution," says Mr Orban, who is charged with managing the 3,400 staff working in the EU translation and interpretation services. "I will pay a visit very soon after the start of 2007 to discuss the issue with the Irish Government."

The entry of Irish, Romanian and Bulgarian as official languages will add an extra €30 million to the €800 million annual translation and interpretation budget of the EU. It will also add more complexity, with the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet, according to Mr Orban, who is keen to keep costs under control.

"Efficiency is a big issue," he said. "We need to ensure that we can maintain the quality of translation and interpretation at a very high level yet control the costs - and that is not easy."

Investing in better tools for translators and engaging in talks with the language industry is one possibility. Limiting the number of internal EU documents to be translated into other languages for use by officials is another. But rationing EU documents translated for the public is not an option currently being considered by Mr Orban.

"Translating EU documents into the official languages is important because it is in our interests to enable citizens to read about decisions that we take," said Mr Orban, who wants EU citizens to aim towards learning two additional European languages.

He is also a supporter of language tests for migrants, who he believes have an obligation to learn the native language of the state they live in.

Mr Orban, who worked previously as Romania's chief negotiator with the EU on membership, is confident the two newest members of the union have achieved all the criteria required to join.

"Romania is ready. We are good people," he said. "In many areas, Romania will enter better prepared than many of the countries that joined in May 2004. But, of course, we still have to make progress on some areas such as justice systems the fight against corruption, but there is no doubt the accession of Bulgaria and Romania is a win:win situation."

The new members will increase the size of the internal market by 30 million citizens, add to the cultural richness of the union and contribute to its security (Romania has already supplied troops on EU military missions), according to Mr Orban. There is also great enthusiasm for the union felt among Romanian people that can only boost the EU, he said.

Despite fears in Ireland and Britain of immigration from the two new EU members, there will be no big influx of immigrants from Romania.

"I am very disappointed with the ban on workers from Romania and Bulgaria introduced by Ireland and Britain," said Mr Orban, who highlights that there is little acceptance of the clear benefits brought to both countries by migrant workers since the 2004 enlargement.

"There will not be a massive inflow of workers from Romania and Bulgaria. There are already 1.5 million to two million people from both states working abroad in states such as Spain and Italy, sunny countries not rainy ones."

However, he says he has advised the Romanian authorities reciprocal measures imposed on Irish people would be counterproductive.