Status of Slovenian in EU Discussed
It is very important for a small-sized Slovenian nation that its language has become one of the EU official languages. However, while this is a great chance for Slovenian to gain ground, it depends primarily on Slovenians whether they will be able to take this opportunity. This is what a law expert told the 2nd European Law Conference, as he discussed the use of Slovenian in EU institutions.
Marko Novak of the Constitutional Court also stressed that the status of official EU language is a tool of securing language equality in the EU, yet the very status does not give the Slovenian language the same weight as enjoyed by some other European languages.
Here Novak stressed that EU institutions have "created" working languages for internal communication. For instance, French is actually the working language at the Court of Justice of the European Communities.
Outlining problems in translating legislation into Slovenia, Ursa Pondelek of the European Parliament furthermore called for the persistent use of national languages in the parliament. She believes that all formal possibilities for the use of national languages should be used in order for Slovenian to gain ground.
Novak, on the other hand, believes that in order for Slovenian to be used as much as possible the EU Slovenian legal terminology should be constantly developed, lawyers should be bilingual, and contacts with abroad should raise the awareness of the Slovenian language.
The recent dispute over how the single European currency should be spelt is, according to Novak, a good example of language problems that can emerge between the EU and member states. Personally, Novak believes the compromise Slovenia agreed to was not actually a compromise. In his view, Slovenia gave in the pressure all too easily. He believes other options than the uniform "euro" spelling could be more appropriate, equally boosting the common European identity.
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