EU Parliament continues sidelining Irish Gaelic and Maltese languages

The European Parliament voted on Tuesday (12 March) to extend a rule that leaves the door open to keep sidelining Irish Gaelic and Maltese from the institution’s translation and interpretation services until the end of the next mandate in 2029.

The Parliament’s internal rules state that documents must be translated into all 24 EU official languages, and all lawmakers have the right to speak in one of the official languages with support from interpreters to bring the EU institutions closer to citizens. 

However, the Parliament has decided to extend until June 2029 a clause in the internal rules of procedure, so that EU translation and interpretation obligations do not need to be provided, as long as enough trained professionals are not available.

Under such a clause, the Parlament’s leadership is currently applying an exception for Irish Gaelic and Maltese, which is reviewed every six months with the next reassessment scheduled for June, around the EU elections.

In the EU there are 1.9 million Irish speakers and 530.000 Maltese speakers, while the bloc’s total population is over 440 million. Making the two languages one of the least spoken, alongside Estonian with 1.1 million speakers and Latvian with 1.7 million.

The minority language debate gained attention at the end of last year when Spain sought to include regional languages such as Catalan and Basque in the EU official languages roster.

So far, Madrid’s attempt failed as many EU countries raised concerns about the costs and feasibility.

‘Thrown under the bus’

Though expected, it is still a big disappointment for Irish and Maltese lawmakers.

Malta’s socialist MEP Cyrus Engerer told Euractiv, “It is unacceptable to have two of the official languages thrown under the bus for a whole new mandate.”  

Not having simultaneous translation in committees, where debates take place, and press conferences “is treating Maltese citizens as second-class citizens where they can’t follow proceedings in their own language,” he said. 

Further adding,  “It also an impediment for any candidate who does not feel comfortable in other languages to run for European elections.”

Echoing Engerer’s concerns, The Left’s Irish MEP Chris MacManus told Euractiv the decision is disappointing and that he hoped the Irish and EU authorities “now work alongside members of the European Parliament so that Irish is treated no better and no worse than the other 23 EU languages.”

Irish became an official EU language in 2007, but a derogation on the implementation rules remained for fifteen years, until January 2022.

But Macmanus acknowledged “there are shortcomings when it comes to some of the interpretation and translation facilities.”

He affirms he wants the Irish and EU to address the shortage of Irish Gaelic language experts by promoting and encouraging professionals to come to Brussels.

However, Engerer disagrees with the Parliament’s claim that there is a shortage of Maltese interpreters. 

“Frequently speaking to interpreters, I know that many Maltese interpreters are barely called in to work in weeks outside plenary week [ie. four days a month], the least the European Parliament can do is invest in Maltese interpreters,” he said. 

Engerer added “One would have thought that with a Maltese as the head of the bureau and this Parliament, things were about to change. Unfortunately, the status quo has won,” referring to the European Parliament’s Maltese President, Roberta Metsola. 

[Edited by Aurélie Pugnet/Rajnish Singh]

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