Francophiles seek primacy for language of Montesquieu in EU

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Francophiles seek primacy for language of Montesquieu

08.02.2007 - 09:27 CET | By Mark Beunderman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Prominent EU francophiles are proposing that
Europe's "most precise and rigorous language" - French - be
"authoritative" in the case of legal interpretation problems, in a move
seen by some observers as a "rearguard battle against the demise of
French." The European Parliament on Wednesday (7 February) saw a visit by
a group of eminent members of the Committee for the Language of European
Law (CPLDE) - meaning French - raise the alarm over the problem of EU
legal texts having different meanings in the union's now 23 official
languages.

The pack of francophiles included the parliament's ex-president Nicole
Fontaine, former Romanian prime minister Adrian Nastase, Polish MEP and
history professor Bronislaw Geremek as well as Antoinette Spaak, the
daughter of ex-Belgian foreign minister and EU founding father Paul-Henri
Spaak. The CPLDE - also supported by EU nobility such as Germany's Otto
von Habsburg and Bulgaria's Simeon Sakskoburggotski - is headed by French
writer and secretary of the Academie Francaise Maurice Druon, who told
Brussels journalists that "the language of Montesquieu is unbeatable."
"The Italian language is the language of song, German is good for
philosophy and English for poetry," Mr Druon said. "French is best at
precision, it has a rigour to it. It is the safest language for legal
purposes."

The CPLDE proposes that French should have the ultimate linguistic primacy
in situations where EU officials or politicians are squabbling over what
an EU text actually says when written in several languages. "All languages
are equal and all the national sensitivities are duly protected. However,
as regards the interpretation of texts it is better to be certain what we
are writing," said Mr Druon. He argued that French should be "the
authoritative" language as it is both related to Latin - in which Roman
law was written - as well as the language of the Napoleonic code.

Tower of Babel

EUobserver in 2005 came across one case of classic EU linguistic
interpretation trouble, where different languages appeared to point to
different degrees of political power for the European Parliament. When
written in English or French, the 1999 regulation for the appointment of
the chief of the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF seemed to completely sideline
MEPs, saying "after consultations with the European Parliament and the
council [member states], the commission shall appoint the director." But
in other language versions, such as German and Polish, the phrasing
stipulates that the decision will be made "after the agreement of the
European Parliament and the council," sparking confusion among EU
officials at the time.

Officials said that currently, the language having ultimate legal primacy
is the text in which the legal act was originally drafted - a situation
which is untenable, according to Mr Druon who inevitably referred to the
biblical tower of Babel. "An elbow length was not the same for Egyptians
as it was for Syrians," he said. "All these people were quite competent
but at the end the tower collapsed." "That is precisely the situation we
are in the European Union at the moment," said the French Academie
Francaise member who however suffered a public correction by Ms Fontaine
for using the English term "understatement."

'Rearguard battle'

Some observers present at Wednesday's press conference expressed
scepticism about the initiative, suspecting that it was not so much
triggered by legal concerns but rather born out of frustration with the
general decline of the French language in the EU. "They don't want to say
it, but they are raising the alarm on English getting more and more
predominant in the institutions," one parliament insider said. "It's a
rearguard battle against the demise of French," said another observer
working in the parliament.

Paul-Marie Couteaux, a French MEP for the Mouvement pour la France which
defends French sovereignty, vented frustration with the fact that many
MEPs do not know what they are voting about because draft resolutions and
amendments are only available in English. Referring to a vote in the
parliament's foreign affairs committee on Kosovo last week, he said "the
text was only in English and in Czech. I have worked at the UN so I
understand English. But many of my French and other colleagues did not
understand a word of it." "This happens much more often. People come to me
and ask: can you please tell me what I am voting about?"

A parliament official explained that draft political texts for MEPs are
often born in last-minute negotiations between parliament officials and
MEPs' assistants having to communicate rapidly and efficiently. "There you
have an Italian, a Pole and a Lithuanian. And they speak in a language
they all understand - normally English. That's perfectly normal,"  he
said.

http://euobserver.com/9/23446

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