A linguistic row between Germany and the new Finnish Presidency of the EU escalated yesterday when the Austrians announced that they too would join the German boycott of EU informal ministerial meetings.
The Germans are protesting at the refusal of the Finns to allow the use of German as one of the working languages of the informal meetings - the tradition in four of the informals is that only three languages are used, usually the language of the Presidency, and the two working languages of the Commission, French and English.
That was no problem for the last four presidencies - Germany, Austria, Britain, and Luxembourg - because German was the first or third language in each case. In the Irish case in 1996, German was also the third language.
But now the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, has written to the Presidency insisting that the rules be changed, arguing that as 90 million out of the EU's 370 million citizens are native German speakers, that reality should be reflected in the language regime.
Old resentments have been fuelled over the years by Austria's accession in 1996 and by the reunification of Germany.
A Finnish spokesman yesterday insisted they had no intention of capitulating and that they were only doing what the Council of Ministers Secretariat had asked them to do to keep down costs and bureaucracy. "So that is what we have done," he said. "It is only the status quo."
The fear for many officials is that if the Germans succeeded in bullying the Finns others like the Spanish, spoken much more widely than German on a world scale, will join the queue.
It all made for a strange start to yesterday's opening session of the Industry Council in the Finnish town of Oulu - not only was the out-going President of the Council, Germany's Mr Werner Muller, not present, nor his Austrian counterpart, but the other German who had been expected, the Industry Commissioner, Mr Martin Bangemann, is now languishing in Brussels, suspended from duty pending his departure to Telefonica.
The three-language regime is also in force at three other informals - education, housing, and, ironically, culture - and the Finns appear adamant that if the Germans don't want to show up that is their problem.
Indeed, only days ago, the Finnish Prime Minister, Mr Paavo Lipponen, warned larger member states against using bullying tactics against the smaller ones.
The EU's overall language regime is complicated. There are 11 official languages in which MEPs and ministers can normally contribute to business and into which all legislation and many official documents must be translated. Some informals, such as those on Justice and Home Affairs, use the full range of languages.
But day-to-day business in the Commission between officials is conducted in French and English, while officials from national capitals, there for technical meetings, can usually also expect to have German simultaneous translation available.
Although Irish is not an official language, citizens are entitled to ask the institutions questions through Irish.
