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Running a multilingual European Union

The use of 23 official languages is the public face of the European Union (EU). The reasons A _____________________ are not hard to identify: they are democracy, transparency and the right to know. New legislation must be published and made available in a language all EU citizens can understand. The use of all official languages also makes it easier for people to participate in public debates and consultations B _____________________.

Its law-making function and the direct involvement of its citizens explain C _____________________ like the United Nations or NATO, which operate only at the intergovernmental level with no legislative function. The United Nations, with more than 190 members, uses only six languages. The Council of Europe, D _____________________, publishes official documents only in English and French, as does NATO.

Running a multilingual EU comes at a price. But it is a modest price when set against the results. The annual cost of translation and interpretation is about 1% of the EU budget, E _____________________. The total cost has risen by only a small margin despite the arrival of 12 new countries since 2004.

The EU institutions have adjusted their procedures over the years to handle the rising number of official languages. Translators work with written texts, and interpreters with the spoken word. But they must be able to translate or interpret into their main language, F _____________________, from at least two other EU languages.