Europe's expansion sparks fear of linguistic domination

"The idea of accommodating even more languages is totally crazy," says Katinka Barysch, chief economist at the Center for European Reform, a nongovernmental think tank in London. "It is prohibitively expensive and impractical. The problem is that there would be intense nationalist resistance to any change. Especially in the new states in Central and Eastern Europe, language is a symbol of freedom from domination."

Indeed, Eastern Europe lags behind the EU in foreign-language proficiencies, and very few people are skilled enough to handle the simultaneous interpretation needed in top level EU discussions. The European Commission reports that it will need 80 high-level conference interpreters from each new member country. Currently about half that number are available.

The languages of the region are so small and specific that one can easily drive through four countries in a day and read road signs in six languages on the way.

Frustrated by lack of communication, German computer programmer Bernd von den Brincken says, "Everyone should just learn English. We can't afford to support a bunch of tiny languages in the EU. Some languages are simply stronger than others."

Renata Staudova, who runs a translating agency in the Czech town of Pardubice, very nearly the geographical center of Europe, has mixed feelings about the European Union. On one hand, her business is set to boom. With 80 interpreters on call, she can transfer texts between 14 different languages including Finnish, Dutch, Hungarian and, of course, English and Czech. As the European Union expands eastward to absorb her country, services like Staudova's will be in ever greater demand.

But, despite the prospect of sparkling profits, Staudova is worried. "I'm afraid that Czech language and Czech identity may disappear in the EU, and we will lose some important part of ourselves," she says. "The influence of English-speaking countries is so powerful, and they do not want to learn any other languages. Eventually, smaller languages may be pushed out of use."

Relying on English would open the way for hazardous misunderstandings, EU officials say.

Jean-Luc Dahaene, former prime minister of Belgium, predicted that, unless care is taken, the conference language of the future will be "bad English" among those who learned it as a second or third language.

Many financial and other decisions by the European Parliament or Council of Ministers immediately become law in member states, and negotiations must be absolutely clear to all delegates.

"Interpreting is a fundamental part of making sure that democracy works and money only changes hands at the intended times," says Ian Anderson, spokesman for the commission's Interpreting Service. Referring to current budget figures, he adds: "We consider 2 euros ($2) per EU citizen per year a bearable price to pay for the ability of citizens to be able to get in touch with the institutions in their own languages."

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