European Commission pushes all-English trade deals despite French opposition

The European Commission on Friday transmitted the EU-India trade deal, concluded in January, to member states for ratification — but only in English. The Commission is seeking to fast-track ratification of trade agreements by skipping translation into all 24 official EU languages at the initial stage.

Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson Olof Gill said that when President von der Leyen travelled to India in January to conclude the negotiations, she committed to trying to get the deal finalised within the calendar year, and that ambition still stands.

French objections

As Euronews first reported in March, Paris rejects the idea of submitting single-language documents for fast-track ratification, arguing that translation is an obligation — not only into French, one of the working languages of the EU institutions. France is concerned about EU and national lawmakers' access to trade agreements in all languages, arguing that the technical provisions of such deals can only be fully understood once translated.

Ratification of EU trade deals requires approval from the European Parliament, and in some cases also from national parliaments of member states.

Translation before the vote

The Commission said on Friday that the EU-India deal will be translated after the signature process by member states, before being transferred to the European Parliament. Once ratified, it will be published in the Official Journal in all official EU languages. Gill added that the agreement will be signed in the language of negotiation, English, while all EU-language versions will become available as soon as possible during the process, and certainly before the vote in the European Parliament.

It remains unclear whether this commitment will be enough to ease French opposition. Paris previously led opposition to the EU-Mercosur agreement for trade-related reasons, with EU farmers fearing unfair competition from Latin American products; that deal's ratification has since been suspended after MEPs referred it to the Court of Justice of the European Union. This time, French objections appear unrelated to trade, since France supports the EU-India deal in principle — it does not involve farm products and was struck with a partner Paris views as its most strategic one in the Asia-Pacific region.