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EU to wrestle with 20 official languages

A committee room in the European Parliament is the perfect way to see the practical effects of European enlargement.

Here it is possible to realise just what it means to be a union of 25 member states operating in 20 official languages – as it will from 1 May.

On any given day, MEPs hold forth on a pet subject, ranging from investment services to fisheries policy to trade issues, and all around them their words are being relayed into 19 other languages.

In the small translat...

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