Strasbourg, 12/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Ombudsman has decided to forward a special report to the European Parliament concerning the linguistic regime of the EU Council Presidency site. Nikiforos Diamandouros thus calls on the Parliament to support to the recommendation which aims at the application of objective and reasonable criteria for choosing the languages to be used on the site.
In March this year, the Ombudsman had called on Council to reconsider the linguistic regime of EU President websites (EUROPE 9165). This was in reaction to a complaint by an association that defends the German language, calling for the sites to be available in German as well as in French and English. The Council, however, had rejected the Ombudsman's recommendation arguing that Presidency websites fall under the authority of the Member State holding the Presidency. Not sharing this view, the Ombudsman decided to take the matter before the European Parliament. Nikiforos Diamandouros believes that information on the EU Council Presidency's website should also be available in all the official languages of the Community. He went on to add: “If the number of languages is to be limited, the choice of languages must be based on objective and reasonable criteria and considerations. However, the Council has failed to deal with the substance of the case because it wrongly insists that it is not responsible for Presidency websites. That failure constitutes maladministration”. The special report can be consulted at: http: //http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/special/pdf/en/051487.pdf (oj)