Statutory Interpretation in the EU: The Augustinian Approach

EU legislation is written in all of the EU’s official languages. Each version is authoritative, and no version is privileged as ‘the original’, at least not as an official matter. The practice derives from the very first Regulation of the Council of the European Economic Community in 1958, which declared Dutch, French, German and Italian as the official languages.1 As countries enter the EU, the Regulation has been amended many times to expand the number of official languages to match the official languages of the member states. Moreover, as accession treaties are signed, the treaties themselves contain provisions that show respect for the linguistic diversity of the EU. For example, the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam says: This Treaty, drawn up in a single original in the Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages, the texts in each of these languages being equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the government of the Italian Republic, which will transmit a certified copy to each of the governments of the other signatory States.