Multilingualism

The European Parliament supports and promotes multilingualism to ensure the highest level of accessibility and transparency for the citizens.
The European Treaties recognize 23 official languages in the EU. Multilingualism is a fundamental value for the European Parliament because it guarantees the cultural and linguistic diversity of the European Union countries.
In the world there are many Countries with more than one official language and their Constitution establishes, as a fundamental principle, the respect of bilingualism, sometimes multilingualism, on the entire national territory. We list below some Countries where multilingualism is official. Do you know the others??

• Belgium
http://www.lachambre.be/kvvcr/choose_language.cfm
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/be00000_.html

• Cameroon
http://www.assemblenationale.cm/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid
http://www.assemblenationale.cm/images/stories/DOCUMENTS_PDF/constitution.pdf

• Canada
http://www.parl.gc.ca/
http://www.constitutionofcanada.com/constitution-act-1982.shtml

• Finland
http://www.om.fi/uploads/54begu60narbnv_1.pdf
http://web.eduskunta.fi/Resource.phx/parliament/index.htx?lng=en

• Namibia
http://www.parliament.gov.na/
http://209.88.21.36/opencms/export/sites/default/grnnet/AboutNamibia/constitution/constitution1.pdf

• Paraguay
http://www.diputados.gov.py/ww2/
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/pa00000_.html

• Rwanda
http://www.parliament.gov.rw/re/
http://www.parliament.gov.rw/re/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=56

• Seychelles
http://www.nationalassembly.sc/
http://www.virtualseychelles.sc/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=sections&Itemid=9

• South Africa
http://www.parliament.gov.za/live/index.php
http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/a108-96.pdf

• Sri Lanka
http://www.parliament.lk/
http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_04_Amd.html

• Switzerland
http://www.parlament.ch/e/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.basiclaw.net/Appendices/switzerland__constitution.htm

[Published by Directorate-General for Interpretation and Conferences, European Parliament]