Latvian parliament to vote on linguistically faulty EU constitution
The Latvian government on Tuesday handed the European Union constitutional treaty to parliament for ratification, in spite of the fact it is riddled with Latvian language mistakes.
Education and Science Minister Ina Druviete said at a cabinet meeting Tuesday that, of the 500 mistakes spotted in the Latvian translation of the treaty, only 10 have been corrected, including all the judicial terminology errors.
But a spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks -- who wants parliament to ratify the treaty by the end of May to send a positive signal to other EU countries, such as France, where a referendum is due to be held on the treaty -- said the mistakes still in the text did not alter its message. "These are technical mistakes and do not change the substance of the treaty," Dagnija Stukena told AFP.
Stukena blamed the mistakes on a lack of Latvian translators in Brussels and the fact that those who are in the Belgian capital are overwhelmed with work.
Latvia is working with the EU to correct the mistakes, which reportedly slipped into the treaty when it was being translated into Latvian in Brussels.
The treaty was submitted to the Latvian parliament for ratification in January, but withdrawn when it was found to contain as many mistakes as it did.
Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia also had problems with translations of the EU constitution.
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