EUROPEAN COMMISSION: LIMITED MULTI-LINGUALISM TO BE PRESERVED IN SPITE OF ENLARGEMENT.

Under the guise of the status quo, the Commission has in reality opted for the strict maintenance of limited linguistic diversification, following the row that erupted over the first version of the proposal which envisaged aligning "written procedure" with the simplified linguistic regime for "oral procedure". This would inevitably have led to the progressive domination of English, it was feared (see European Report 2614 for further details). This solution, guaranteeing the survival of French and German, including in "oral procedure", secured a broad consensus within the College, though Vice-President Loyola de Palacio called in the meeting for the number of working languages to be expanded to include Spanish.This conservative provision concerns the preparatory phase of College decisions. It is however accompanied by a series of measures aiming to safeguard multi-lingualism by ensuring that costs are kept under control despite the foreseen arrival of up to ten new languages as of 2004.Examples include: Improvements in working methods to increase efficiency: use of information technology could imply that secretaries now shift from purely mechanical tasks to the editing and...