Post by Bozur on Feb 26, 2005 15:45:32 GMT -5
Europe - AP
Italy's Pride Hurt by EU Translation Snub
Mon Feb 21,12:43 PM ET Europe - AP
By JOJI SAKURAI, Associated Press Writer
ROME - It's called the language of love, of grand opera and some of the greatest poetry known to humanity, but Italians fear their melodic tongue no longer passes muster for bureaucrats in Brussels.
A quiet decision by the EU to stop translating some news conferences into Italian has generated a very loud reaction here, with the government issuing an official protest and newspapers agonizing over how the land that gave birth to Dante could suffer such a humiliation.
In a letter addressed to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Italy's ambassador to the EU, Rocco Cangelosi, complained of "grave discrimination" taken against his nation and a "clear violation of treaties."
Last week's decision doesn't target Italy in particular. It simply selects English, French and German as the three main languages into which all EU commissioner news conferences are automatically translated. Up to now, the events have been translated in the 20 official EU languages.
But the Italian press has been acting as if being left off the elite list means Brussels is deliberately relegating the nation to second-tier status.
"Let's relaunch Italian prestige," the Roman daily Il Messagero said Monday in a front-page commentary. "With the exclusion of Italian, the political consideration our nation has and will have in Brussels has clearly been reduced."
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini played down the significance of the move, saying in an editorial in the Corriere della Sera that any notion the move to drop Italian downgrades Rome in the EU is "exaggerated."
But Fini, who leads the right-wing National Alliance Party, went on to wax poetic about the central role Italian language and literature have played in European culture, singling out the medieval poet Dante Alighieri, author of the "Divine Comedy."
"The defense of Italian language and identity has nothing to do with 'nationalist' attitudes," Fini wrote. The poet T.S. Eliot, the minister went on to say, "reminds us ... that Dante's universal vision of the world and his religious inspiration make him 'by far the most European' of the poets of our continent."
The EU said the decision was purely a pragmatic one, and it has not provoked similar outcries in other member nations.
"We have to consider the unavailability of interpreters and their costs," said Francoise Le Bail, the EU Commission spokeswoman.
If Fini expressed subtle displeasure at the EU move, some members of Italy's aristocracy — perhaps conscious of their glory days of being world players and patrons of the arts — did not hesitate to show their outrage.
Princess Yasmin von Hohenstaufen, a descendant of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, declared in a statement issued by the European Council of Princes that "Italian must triumph over any death sentence."
"The Princess Yasmin von Hohenstaufen Avril de Burey d'Anjou Puoti called on the President of the Italian Republic to withdraw Italy from the EU in protest over the exclusion of the Italian language," the statement said.
Italy's cultural heritage — from the legacy of ancient Rome to the treasures of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci — is a source of tremendous pride here. But the feeling that Italy isn't quite taken seriously on the world stage has long been a sore point.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi played on those concerns when he tried to generate public support for sending troops to Iraq under the U.S.-led coalition.
___
Associated Press writer Robert Wielaard contributed to this report from Brussels.
Italy's Pride Hurt by EU Translation Snub
Mon Feb 21,12:43 PM ET Europe - AP
By JOJI SAKURAI, Associated Press Writer
ROME - It's called the language of love, of grand opera and some of the greatest poetry known to humanity, but Italians fear their melodic tongue no longer passes muster for bureaucrats in Brussels.
A quiet decision by the EU to stop translating some news conferences into Italian has generated a very loud reaction here, with the government issuing an official protest and newspapers agonizing over how the land that gave birth to Dante could suffer such a humiliation.
In a letter addressed to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Italy's ambassador to the EU, Rocco Cangelosi, complained of "grave discrimination" taken against his nation and a "clear violation of treaties."
Last week's decision doesn't target Italy in particular. It simply selects English, French and German as the three main languages into which all EU commissioner news conferences are automatically translated. Up to now, the events have been translated in the 20 official EU languages.
But the Italian press has been acting as if being left off the elite list means Brussels is deliberately relegating the nation to second-tier status.
"Let's relaunch Italian prestige," the Roman daily Il Messagero said Monday in a front-page commentary. "With the exclusion of Italian, the political consideration our nation has and will have in Brussels has clearly been reduced."
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini played down the significance of the move, saying in an editorial in the Corriere della Sera that any notion the move to drop Italian downgrades Rome in the EU is "exaggerated."
But Fini, who leads the right-wing National Alliance Party, went on to wax poetic about the central role Italian language and literature have played in European culture, singling out the medieval poet Dante Alighieri, author of the "Divine Comedy."
"The defense of Italian language and identity has nothing to do with 'nationalist' attitudes," Fini wrote. The poet T.S. Eliot, the minister went on to say, "reminds us ... that Dante's universal vision of the world and his religious inspiration make him 'by far the most European' of the poets of our continent."
The EU said the decision was purely a pragmatic one, and it has not provoked similar outcries in other member nations.
"We have to consider the unavailability of interpreters and their costs," said Francoise Le Bail, the EU Commission spokeswoman.
If Fini expressed subtle displeasure at the EU move, some members of Italy's aristocracy — perhaps conscious of their glory days of being world players and patrons of the arts — did not hesitate to show their outrage.
Princess Yasmin von Hohenstaufen, a descendant of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, declared in a statement issued by the European Council of Princes that "Italian must triumph over any death sentence."
"The Princess Yasmin von Hohenstaufen Avril de Burey d'Anjou Puoti called on the President of the Italian Republic to withdraw Italy from the EU in protest over the exclusion of the Italian language," the statement said.
Italy's cultural heritage — from the legacy of ancient Rome to the treasures of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci — is a source of tremendous pride here. But the feeling that Italy isn't quite taken seriously on the world stage has long been a sore point.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi played on those concerns when he tried to generate public support for sending troops to Iraq under the U.S.-led coalition.
___
Associated Press writer Robert Wielaard contributed to this report from Brussels.