EU millions to go on translation

EU will have 20 official languages after 1 May

Translation costs for the European Union are expected to rise by 35m euros ($45m) when 10 new members join in May.

Officials say expanding from 15 nations sharing 11 languages to 25 nations with 20 languages would almost double the number of interpreters needed.

The EU, whose translation budget was 105m euros ($134m) last year, says it needs at least 180 more interpreters.

But officials have admitted there is a shortage of translators in the Baltic languages, Slovenian and Maltese.

The translation budget is expected to rise to 140m euros ($179m) this year, after enlargement in 1 May.

The figures do not include the cost of translating thousands of pages of official documents into EU languages.

Cost-cutting

The only new member state which will not bring any extra costs is Cyprus, where Greek is the official language.

But the EU's director general for interpretation, Marco Benedetti, indicated that may well change.

Mr Benedetti said Turkish could soon become an official EU language if talks to re-unite Cyprus succeeded and the entire island became a member state.

About 200,000 Turkish Cypriots live in the north of the island.

EU officials say rising costs have forced them to abandon the idea of providing full interpretation for all meetings.

In the future, only the meetings of EU leaders and ministers will be covered in full - while lower level meetings will be translated into a few languages.