Procedure for Fair Use of Cyrillic Begins on Bulgarian MEP Call

The European Parliament is starting the procedure for equal treatment of the Cyrillic script with the Latin at the European institution, EP President Martin Schulz informs.

The move came as response to a letter written by Bulgarian MEP, Ivaylo Kalfin, alerting Schulz about the problem.

Kalfin used May 24 as the date for the letter, the day Bulgarians celebrate the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius who were instrumental in developing the alphabet.

"For more than 1 000 years now Cyrillic is one of the chief elements of Bulgarian identity. This script has been used by the Bulgarian State and church ever since the Middle Ages. This is the alphabet by means of which my compatriots get to know the world and communicate with it," wrote the socialist MEP.

In particular, Kalfin requested the transliteration of all Latin and Greek-spelled names of persons or localities into Cyrillic, arguing that it should present no difficulty if based on a handful of simple rules.

"Since Cyrillic names may be also written in the Latin script, then the reverse is manifestly possible and only just," stated Kalfin.

The Bulgarian MEP also brought to the fore the fact that the European Parliament is the institution most covered by Bulgarian media, which according to him only makes the necessity to more widely use the Cyrillic even stronger.

According to Kalfin, writing foreign names in Cyrillic in official EP documents in Bulgarian is only "a due act of respect for Bulgarian citizens."

In his response, Schulz states that he fully supports the proposal to change the practice of using the Latin alphabet for names that don't have Bulgarian origin. Foreign names, including those of non-Bulgarian MEPs can be written in Bulgarian, under the rules established by the Bulgarian Language Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS.

The President informs that the EP administration is already working on finding out what needs to be done technologically in order to have all names in the database of the institution written in Cyrillic ASAP.

He explains that the process might take some time over the complicated internet system of the EP and the need to coordinate the work of different offices, but promises to keep Kalfin posted on the progress.

Kalfin has thanked Schulz for the assistance and has voiced satisfaction from the reaction of the EP and its President.

As Bulgaria's Minister of Foreign Affairs (2001-5), Kalfin was instrumental in imposing the requirement that the name of the EU common currency, the euro, be also written in the Cyrillic.

Currently, Bulgaria is the only among the EU's 27 member states to use the Cyrillic. All other countries except Greece use the Latin script.