Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Juncker addresses a news conference during a European Union leaders summit in Brussels

In the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) is calling for Luxembourgish to be elevated to the status of one of the European Union’s official languages. An ADR campaign advertisement proclaims (without a trace of irony): “Yes to the recognition of Luxembourgish as an official EU language, no to a pointless waste of resources.”

It has been one of the distinctive contributions of Luxembourg to the life of the EU (of which it is a founding member) that it has not insisted on its language being an EU language. It used to share this characteristic with
Ireland, which did not press for Gaelic, one of its two official languages, to be recognised until after the 2004 enlargement of the EU.

Although Luxembourgish is used by 400,000 of the population, the preferred language of the Grand Duchy’s government is French. Official legislation must be expressed in French, for example. But now ADR is calling on the government to follow the Irish example, saying that not all EU official documents would have to be translated into Luxembourgish, as compromises have been found with Maltese and Irish because of the cost and the lack of interpreters and translators.

A petition is being circulated and if 4,500 signatures are collected before 21 June, the national parliament will have to organise a debate on the issue. So far, around 400 people have signed.

The ADR is not expected to win a seat in the European Parliament, which is probably just as well since the absence of Luxembourgish interpreters would vex any ADR MEP.