More on Latin as a common language for the EU

Here's my original post from 2006 - below it, a delightful comment "Andy" from Northern Europe just sent this morning.

Extracts from
EU Could Revive Latin as a Working Language
By Jonathan Luxmoore, August 29, 2006
The Vatican's daily newspaper has called for Latin to be made the official working language of the European Union, after attempts by the new Finnish presidency to promote its use in EU departments.

A Latin-language news programme, Nuntii Latini, has been broadcast weekly for the past decade by YLE, Finland’s equivalent to the BBC, making the ancient Roman language "potentially contemporary."

Latin formulations have been found for numerous modern phenomena, such autocinetica (motorway), supervenalicium (supermarket), fullonica electrica (washing machine) and pilae coriaceae lusor (soccer star).

The Finnish government set up a weekly news summary in Latin when it first assumed the EU’s rotating presidency in 1999, and has repeated the service, alongside English, French and Swedish.

Classics scholars have insisted use of the language would "turn EU jargon into poetry". As examples, they said the Common Agricultural Policy could be rendered as "Ratio communis agros colendi" ("common scheme for cultivating the fields"), while the EU's Acquis Communautaire, or body of laws and regulations, could be Latinised as "Corpus legum institutorumque iuris Europaei."

"Latin isn't dead – it’s still very much in use in different forms across the world today. After all, Italians, French and Spaniards all speak a new form of Latin."

Several Italian newspapers have backed the L’Osservatore Romano proposal, while noting that Finland itself was never part of the Roman Empire.

Here's Andy's response:

Resurrecting the Roman Empire...
How hard can it be? What needs to be done are five sequential things:

1. An EU directive mandating all schools to teach all children across the union Latin as first foreign language at the age of seven for historical reasons (before English and French).
   
   
2. EU-fund and promote free Pan-European pop TV and pop Music channels in Latin, where modern American movies are dubbed and subtitled to Latin.
   
   
3. Establish Latin as one of the official languages of the Union.
   
   
4. Just wait 20 years and by that time those kids will eventually start speaking Latin to each other - referencing the films and the music - and their ancient and historical European bonds.
   
   In time all 25 local languages (English, German, French, Spanish...) will turn into second languages of the Union - the first being Latin
   
   
5. Create a proper Federal sovereign EU-state and move all those EU-institutions from cold Brussels to the Eternal City, to ROME, where they belong - and rebrand the Union as the Old Republic and incorporate the ancient symbols.

*WOW*. It would just be so way out cool *smile*. /Andy from northern Europe.

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