The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has welcomed the announcement by European Parliament President, Martin Schulz, that Parliament will introduce Irish on its website. This follows a complaint from an Irish citizen. In June 2013, the Ombudsman had called on the European Parliament (EP) to use Irish on its website, at least in sections where the public is invited to interact with the EP.

Emily O'Reilly stated: "I am delighted that the European Parliament will even go further than my recommendation and not only translate parts of its website but make the whole website available in Irish. The public needs to be able to exercise their right to interact, in their own language, with the institution that directly represents them. I am glad that the Parliament shares this view."

EP committed to respecting the status of the Irish language

In 2012, the Irish citizen complained to the Ombudsman that the EP had failed since 2007, when Irish was granted the status of official EU language, to make its website available in Irish. According to the complainant, this violated the principle of equal treatment between official languages.

The Ombudsman praised the EP's use of multilingualism in its day-to-day operations, but recommended that the EP also make key sections of its website available in Irish.

EP President Schulz has submitted a four point action plan on how to make an Irish version of the website available by May 2014, ahead of the European elections. He stressed that this issue is of great importance to the European Parliament and that it is committed to respecting the status of the Irish language.

The Ombudsman's recommendation is available at: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/cases/draftrecommendation.faces/en/51072/html.bookmark