Another attempt to save the French language in Europe's Babel
Maurice Druon: defending French alongside 22 other official EU languages
They keep trying: "French must become EU language of law"
Elder statesman Maurice Druon, 89, is campaigning to make French the supreme language of legal documents in the European Union. He has been joined in this initiative by Francophiles, politicians, and aristocrats from all over Europe.
"Italian is the language of song, German is the language of philosophy, and English is good for poetry, but French is best for precision," Druon said of his quest. "French should be the authoritative language for law because it is related to Latin – in which Roman law was written – and it was also the language of the Napoleonic Code."
"It sounds nice to French ears, but let's get real – we are living in the 21st century and English is the language that everyone understands," huffed an EU official, who declined to use his last name for fear of offending Gallic sensitivities and Druon, whom he called "a French monument."
An EU official from France added that the initiative was strictly that of a private individual and did not reflect his government's policy – although Druon said that he had discussed the idea with President Jacques Chirac and other top officials and that they had offered encouragement.
Druon's battle is open-ended but he wants resolution before the EU gets bigger and even more linguistically cumbersome.
