Shakespeare and Keats may have written the finest verses, Kant and Nietzsche expressed the greatest philosophical thoughts, while Verdi’s songs are supreme. But when it comes to writing down the law, the undisputed kings were Montesquieu and Napoleon.

That is the conclusion of a campaign to establish French as the benchmark legal language of the European Union.

Whenever Latvians, Poles and Portuguese get together in the expanding Tower of Babel that is Brussels, English is the most likely language to be heard. But when it comes to resolving misunderstandings and mistranslations, French is the most precise, authoritative and rigorous of Europeanm languages, the Francophiles argue.

The first shots in the latest battle to establish primacy among the 23 official tongues of the EU were fired by Maurice Druon, the venerable 88-year-old author and secretary of the Academie Française.

He is one of an impressive group assembled by Nicole Fontaine, a former president of the European Parliament, that includes an array of international ministers and the former prime ministers of Bulgaria and Romania. They are pressing the case for French to be the final yardstick by which to judge any nuances that creep into the translated texts of the EU.

“The Italian language is the language of song, German is good for philosophy and English for poetry,” Mr Druon said. “French is best at precision, it has a rigour to it. It is the safest language for legal purposes.”

The convention at present is for any anomalies or confusions to be checked against the language in which the document was written, which is usually one of the principal languages of English, French or German.

But, in what is seen by many as a rearguard action designed to bolster their declining influence in the expanded EU, the French have formed the Committee for the Language of European Law.

“All languages are equal and all the national sensitivities are duly protected. However, as regards the interpretation of texts it is better to be certain what we are writing,” Mr Druon said. He said French was clearly the most authoritative language because it was both related to Latin — in which Roman law was written — and the language of the Napoleonic Code, still the basis of French law. Mrs Fontaine added: “This language is recognised as being analytical, precise and clear, with a syntax that can adapt to all the intentions of thought, and is particularly apt for describing the definitions and expressions of law.”

In one case of troubled linguistic interpretation in 2005, according to the EU Observer website, different languages appeared to point to different degrees of political power for the European Parliament. When written in English or French, the 1999 regulation for the appointment of the chief of Olaf, the EU antifraud office, said MEPs should be consulted, saying that “after consultations with the European Parliament and the council (member states), the commission shall appoint the director”.

In other language versions, including German and Polish, the phrasing suggested to some that the decision would be made “after the agreement of the European Parliament and the council”, using the German word abstinnung, which carries the meaning of “vote” as well the connotation of “coming to an agreement”.

This caused confusion among EU officials at the time and the ultimate decision was referred back to the original drafting language — which happened to be French.

Paul-Marie Couteaux, a French MEP for the Mouvement pour la France, referring to a vote that took place in the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Kosovo last week, said: “The text was only in English and in Czech. I have worked at the UN so I understand English, but many of my French and other colleagues did not understand a word of it.”

However, the drive to reprioritise French has drawn a sceptical response elsewhere in Brussels.

One official told EU observer, a website: “They don’t want to say it, but they are raising the alarm on English getting more and more predominant in the institutions.”

Languages fit for purpose

French

Napoleonic Code La promulgation faite par le Président de la République sera réputée connue dans le département où siãge le Gouvernement, un jour aprãs celui de la promulgation; et dans chacun des autres départements, aprãs l'expiration du même délai, augmenté d'autant de jours qu'il y aura de fois 10 myriamãtres (environ 20 lieues anciennes), entre la ville où la promulgation en aura été faite, et le chef-lieu de chaque département.

German

Kant, from Critique of Pure Reason Die menschliche Vernunft hat das besondere Schicksal in einer Gattung ihrer Erkenntnisse: daß sie durch Fragen belästigt wird, die sie nicht abweisen kann; denn sie sind ihr durch die Natur der Vernunft selbst aufgegeben, die sie aber auch nicht beantworten kann; denn sie öbersteigen alles Vermögen der menschlichen Vernunft.

Italian

Rigoletto : Verdi

La donna ã mobile Qual piuma al vento, Muta d’accento — e di pensiero. Sempre un amabile, Leggiadro viso, In pianto o in riso, — ã menzognero.

English

Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d . . .

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