It is the EU objective to promote the linguistic and cultural diversity of its peoples. The EU has as many official languages as its Member States have. Currently there are 20 official languages, but with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria possibly in 2007, there will be two more.
When each Member State joins the Union, it stipulates which language or languages it wants to have declared as official languages of the EU. The complete list of the European Union’s official languages is then agreed by all the EU governments. This means EU citizens can use their national language when dealing with the EU institutions, just as they can when dealing with their national authorities at home. Similarly, all legislation adopted by the EU, is accessible directly by each citizen in his or her national language.
The binding and non-binding EU norms are to be published in all official languages of the EU. The Treaties and there amendments are original and authentic in all official languages as well. There are initiatives from some Member States (for example from Spain) to respect the regional but not official languages of the Member States. The language diversity of the EU is one of its values. However, it should be noted that working in many languages is sometimes not an easy task. Therefore,we can list the working languages of the EU, which are the most frequently used languages in the every day working within the EU institutions. These are English, French and German. However in Council meetings or in the sessions of the European Parliament all official languages are used and translated.
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