France and Italy have opposed the European Union’s initiative to draft trade agreements exclusively in English in order to speed up the negotiation process, citing constitutional constraints and risks to the multilingual nature of EU institutions, the Financial Times reports.
According to the publication, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič proposed drafting the legal and technical “text” of a new trade agreement with Indonesia entirely in English, with the final text subsequently translated into all 24 official EU languages.
Typically, the process of finalizing trade agreements takes up to two years, as all changes must be agreed upon and implemented in all EU languages. The proposed approach, according to Šefčovič, should reduce the preparation time to one year.
He notes that delays in the process of concluding agreements lead to economic losses and postpone the benefits of trade agreements.
At the same time, France and Italy have expressed objections, citing constitutional provisions and the principle of multilingualism. A French official stated: “This is a matter of the French Constitution. France cannot be bound by or assume obligations under a text that is not drafted in French.”
However, according to sources, there is broad support among EU member states for the idea of accelerating agreement-conclusion procedures.
The European Commission notes that the use of English during the legal and technical drafting phase is standard practice in international negotiations and does not imply a refusal to translate the final documents.
