The EU consists of 27 nations using 23 languages including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish. Including Korean, the original copy of the agreement should therefore be written up in 24 languages. But a Foreign Ministry official said, "We can’t form any notion of how much time is required to make out the agreement in such a large number of languages and to verify they were translated accurately."

The texts of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement was written in just two languages, Korean and English, and although the negotiators of both sides struggled to ensure accuracy, there are subtle differences of meaning between two languages in the more than 1,300 pages.

Korean negotiators in the trade talks therefore plan to propose drafting just one original version in English and then translating it into each language by country. However, the EU apparently wants to draft the texts in 24 languages on principle. A Korean government official said he is worried about having to deal with 27 countries at a time and of any unexpected problems that could throw up.

(englishnews@chosun.com )