The Romanian language in official EU documents

2.2.2009

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0821/09
by Călin Cătălin Chiriţă (PPE‑DE)
to the Commission

The Romanian language is the mother tongue of the majority of the populations of Romania and the Republic of Moldova, just as German is the mother tongue of the majority of the populations of Germany and Austria. The ‘Moldovan language’ does not exist, just as the ‘Austrian language’ does not exist. Similarly, the ‘Belgian language’, the ‘United States language’ and the ‘Mexican language’ do not exist. The Republic of Moldova’s existence as a sovereign state cannot be used as an argument in support of the existence of a ‘Moldovan language’ (a term invented by the Stalinist regime and perpetuated by the current government of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova). Recently, the Library of the US Congress removed the so‑called ‘Moldovan language’ from the international ISO codes. The Code 639‑2 was amended, and now the so‑called ‘Moldovan language’ is considered, correctly, to be a variant of the Romanian language. The previous identifiers ‘mo’ and ‘mol’ will disappear, being converted to ‘ro’, ‘rom’ and ‘rum’. The so‑called ‘Moldovan language’ is therefore the Romanian language.

Will the European Commission take that circumstance into consideration in the terminology it is to use in its official documents?

OJ C 189, 13/07/2010