French journalist boycotts 'English-only' EU conference in Dublin

ISTANBUL

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenndy greets the public after a flag-raising ceremony at Dublin Castle in Dublin, Ireland on December 31, 2012 ahead of Ireland's assumption of the rotating presidency of the European Union on Jauary 1, 2013. AFP photo

Jean Quatremer, a Brussels correspondent for French daily Libération, did not attend an EU conference in Dublin on Jan. 8 in protest that the conference was only being conducted in English.

"I have no desire to be governed in a language which is not my own and which most Europeans are incapable of mastering,” he wrote in a blog post entitled “Ireland, in service of her gracious majesty.”

“For Ireland, the European Union already has one official language and to nobody’s surprise, it’s English,” he said.

“The union presidency has a duty to respect multilingualism, at least in the institution’s working languages [German, English, French] or the pressroom languages [English, French],” he said. “Instead, Ireland has decided not to provide translation at all. Not everyone in Spain, Portugal and Poland speaks English; however, that might seem strange to an Anglophone.”

The conference was held in the Irish capital on Jan. 8 to mark its takeover of the revolving EU presidency.

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