concluded<\/strong> <\/a>on 27 January could serve as a test case for using English as the main language during ratification.<\/p>\n\u201cWe lost almost \u20ac300 billion by not having the Mercosur agreement in place since 2021, if it comes to the GDP, and more than \u20ac200 billion in export opportunities,\u201d \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d told journalists after meeting ministers on 20 February, adding that once negotiations end it can take up to 2.5 years before businesses can operate in partner countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn today’s world, we cannot simply lose the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said the Commission would ensure the agreements are translated into all 24 official EU languages once published in the Official Journal, i.e. after ratification. He added the proposal was backed by at least seven member states at the meeting, though not all countries had time to speak.<\/p>\n
French sources who spoke to Euronews were insistent that Paris would vigorously oppose the move to English-only agreements if necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a matter of principle, we defend the use of all the languages of the Union, and in particular French, which is one of the EU\u2019s working languages,\u201d one official told Euronews.<\/p>\n
‘Transparency, precision and understanding’<\/p>\n
Language policy in the bloc\u2019s institutions remains politically sensitive for countries such as France, whose language has declined sharply over the past decades as English massively dominates daily work in the European Union institutions \u2013 despite French, German and English being the three working languages.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwitching entirely to English raises a legal and democratic issue, and the Commission is well aware of it,\u201d an EU diplomat told Euronews.<\/p>\n
On its website, the European Commission says linguistic diversity is essential and that the EU promotes multilingualism in its institutional work.<\/p>\n
The bloc once even had a commissioner dedicated to multilingualism, though the portfolio was gradually merged with others and eventually disappeared.<\/p>\n
“I have the impression that in some cases the Commission seizes the opportunity to push the idea that English has a superior status, and that the other official languages are translation languages that can come later,” Michele Gazzola, expert in language policy, said.<\/p>\n
He added that relying only on English during ratification could pose problems for members of the European Parliament, and even more so if national parliaments are involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of transparency, precision and understanding.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 07\/03\/2026 – 8:00 GMT+1 France will push back against a European Commission plan to fast-track ratification…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,7221,299,5187,2557,1699,36,46789,22708,15518],"class_list":["post-809716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-eu-policy","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-languages","tag-mercosur","tag-trade-agreement"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116186988395097018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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