MEP Fernand Kartheiser on Monday raised eyebrows in the European Parliament by delivering part of his speech in Luxembourgish, a language not officially recognised by the institution, before being interrupted and urged to switch to an approved language.
On Monday, Fernand Kartheiser, MEP of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) since this year, drew attention when addressing the European Parliament in his native Luxembourgish instead of one of the 24 officially recognised languages. He was only a couple of words in when he was promptly interrupted by Vice-President Esteban González Pons, who reminded Kartheiser that parliamentary rules stipulate that lawmakers must use one of the official languages when taking the floor.
Kartheiser, who is part of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), responded in English, pleading for the right to use his native language, a position he had already announced to defend before the session: "Mr President, I respectfully request the same right for the people of Luxembourg than for everybody else in this parliament, and I would kindly request you to let me speak in Luxembourgish."
Pons remained just as adamant as Kartheiser, however, and pointed out that the Luxembourg MEP had just shown that he was perfectly able to communicate in English, suggesting he continue to do so.
Kartheiser then went on to make his point in English, expressing his wish that "Luxembourgish should not be discriminated against by this parliament" and reminding the vice-president that "Luxembourgish has also been a founding language of the European Union". He further noted that Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, and Joseph Bech – "three of our founding fathers" – once discussed the very future of a peaceful Europe in Luxembourgish.
"I would like to have this language recognised in this parliament, I thank you", Kartheiser ended his speech which was titled 'Use of the Luxembourg language in the European Parliament'.
Interpreters on the live stream of the session had immediately noted that Luxembourgish would not be translated given that it lacked official status.
As of 2013, the European Parliament has 24 official languages including Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
