MEP demands Italian language rights from EU

A senior MEP has called for a boycott of meetings in the European Parliament where there is no Italian language translation.

In an appeal to the language services of the EU institutions, Cristiana Muscardini, co-president of the parliament’s UEN group said she and her Italian colleagues in the group were initiating a “white strike” from Wednesday.

“Italian language is increasingly being pushed aside. The languages of the founding EU countries should be respected,” she told journalists.

“My members will no longer take part in committee meetings which are not translated into Italian, and will not take part in when documents are not translated into Italian.”

Muscardini said that Italy’s influence in the EU institutions was fading; a situation not helped by the lack Italian civil servants working in the European Commission, compared with other member states.

She said France and the UK had 30 civil servants, Germany and Spain 25, while Italy only had 19, with 3 due to retire this year.

The Italian MEP told reporters that she had raised the matter with her foreign minister Gianfranco Fini and that she was pushing for the issue to be raised at the next EU summit in March.

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