[lg policy] EU: Commission under fire over language policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Commission under fire over language policy
By Toby Vogel  -  18.10.2012 / 05:39 CET





Ombudsman says public consultations should have taken place in all
official languages.

Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European ombudsman, has criticised the
European Commission for refusing to conduct public consultations in
the 23 official languages of the European Union. In a decision
published last week (11 October), Diamandouros found that the
Commission's practice of launching public consultations in only a few
EU languages constituted maladministration.

The decision said that the Commission “has not shown any real
willingness to ensure that all European citizens are able to
understand its public consultations, which should, as a matter of
principle, be published in all the treaty languages”.

It also noted that the Commission had not provided any “convincing and
acceptable justification” for limiting the use of EU languages in
public consultations.
Complaint from Spain

The initial complaint was brought in 2010 by a Spanish lawyer, who
argued that the Commission's policy was arbitrary and contradicted the
principles of openness, good administration and non-discrimination.

The Commission's response to a draft recommendation from Diamandouros
in November was that it had to prioritise its translation work in view
of a limited budget and the demands of the legislative process. It
also said that citizens had the right to submit their responses to
public consultation in any of the official languages.

http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/commission-under-fire-over-language-policy-/75415.aspx

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