Ierland wil Gaelic als officiële EU-taal erkend zien (en) - Main contents

The Irish government decided on Wednesday (14 July) to push for Irish to become an official language of the European Union.

A press statement said the government would "initiate a process of discussions with the other EU member states and the EU commission with a view to seeking official and working language status for the Irish language in the EU ...".

Eamon O'Cuiv, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht (the Irish region) affairs said, according to the Irish Times, "this will put Irish on a par with Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Maltese, if it is successful, and we are confident that it will be".

The pressure to have the status of Irish changed in the EU was raised considerably during the Dublin's six-month tenure at the helm of the European Union.

Currently, the language has 'treaty status' meaning that all the treaties of the European Union have to be translated into the language and any correspondence with the EU can be conducted, and must be answered, in Irish.

However, legislation is not translated into Irish.

Twenty one official languages?

If the status were to be changed, it would join 20 other official languages of the EU.

This would mean MEPs would have direct translation in all committee and plenary meetings in the European Parliament.

However, there is likely to be some resistance to the move as the EU is already struggling to meet its translation commitments since ten new countries joined the EU on 1 May bringing nine new languages with them.

Any decision on Irish would have to be taken with all member states by unanimity.

First language

Although English is by far the more widely used language on the island, Irish is enshrined in the constitution as the first language of the country.

The Irish language evolved from Celtic immigrants around 600 BC.

Irish and Luxemburgish are the only national languages in the EU which do not have official status in the bloc.