"Commission ready to introduce Turkish as soon as there is a settlement
By Myria Antoniadou in Brussels
EU Commission officials yesterday insisted they were in a position to introduce Turkish into EU affairs if and when there was a settlement in Cyprus.
At a news conference on translation and interpretation facilities eight months after enlargement, officials said they �do not expect to have any shortages� in case Turkish needs to be brought in at short notice.
The Union officials believe they may not be able to recruit Turkish Cypriots right from the start, as there are no schooling facilities for them on the island. They would initially take on Turkish nationals, an easier task as the EU and Turkey have been training people in Turkish since the 1980s.
Cyprus joined the EU with Greek as its official language, a decision taken during the accession negotiations. It was agreed there was no point in undertaking the huge cost of introducing a language which would not be used unless a settlement was reached.
The Commission officials appeared quite satisfied with the state of play in translation and interpretation in the wake of enlargement, even though they admit that more people are needed. They pointed out that enlargement was a process that took time and that they had problems with issues such as quality control in all enlargements.
The total cost for interpretation in 2004 came to 105 million euros or 0.23 eurocents per citizen of the enlarged union. Translation costs in 2003, before enlargement, came to 549 million euros. The translation cost after enlargement and once the institutions are working at full speed is estimated at 807 million euros per year, a cost of 1.78 euro to each citizen."
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