IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The European Parliament has expanded its web site to include information in some 13 new languages, to reach citizens of all the Eastern European and other countries set to join the EU in an imminent phase of expansion. An expanded main menu and some additional information pages have been created, with access to all official Parliament documents expected to follow in due course, as countries actually join the union. The process will not be a simple one, as the site uses a content management system to manage its data which puts web pages together dynamically in each language, says Reinhard Fritsch, head of the European Parliament Internet Publishing Service. A team of technicians is currently working to adjust the system to recognise new characters specific to Polish and Baltic languages, while Bulgarian needs an entirely new character set, he said.

According to Fritsch, there are also more politically charged issues to resolve. "The big question is whether Turkish should be used as the language for Cyprus - we don't know yet," he said. The team aims to provide more general information about officials and procedures in new languages by May next year. "It's a challenge. People don't care if it's in 23 languages as long as it's in their own," he said.

A debate on EU enlargement took place at the Parliament over three days from 18 November, setting out the body's response to European Commission reports on the readiness of each candidate state. The debate finalised negotiations for ten states to become members by 2004, and attempted to clarify the position of the remaining three - Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

Meanwhile Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, will be available online to discuss enlargement and the future of the EU in any of the union's current 11 official languages on 27 November from 19.00 to 21.00 Greenwich Mean Time. Questions can be sent in advance to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and for further information see here.

Quelle: Headstar