THE European Parliament will take a step closer to becoming a modern Tower of Babel next month, when its proceedings are interpreted into 23 languages.

The future shape of a 25-member European Union, stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals and the Black Sea, will be on show in Strasbourg. More than 200 parliamentarians from the 13 candidate countries that want to join the EU will meet the existing 626 Euro-MPs for three days of debate and discussion.

The many problems in organising the meeting will pale into insignificance compared with the logistical challenges facing the EU in two years, when its population is expected to jump from 380 million to 450 million and the number of official languages in daily EU use grows.

Inevitably, policy development and the preparation of legislation will be more complex. To handle the extra responsibilities, thousands of EU officials will be recruited. The European Commission alone says it will need an extra 3,900 civil servants by 2008. This will bring its overall staffing levels to just under 30,000.

Enlargement will place a strain on language resources. The EU is already the largest linguistic institutional melting pot in the world, with more than 1,900 in-house translators and interpreters.

The new admissions will be a huge shock to the EU. But, as one French official said: “It can’t be a bigger shock than when Britain joined in 1973.”

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