English Style Guide for European Commission: Rules and Regulations

The English Style Guide is a handbook for authors and translators working for the European Commission. It promotes clear and concise English for the general public without jargon. The guide covers spelling, punctuation, numbers, abbreviations, scientific names, gender-neutral language, legislative writing, creating lists and tables, and more. It also provides details about the European Union, its institutions, treaties, legislation, finances, member states, and external relations. The guide is a comprehensive reference for creating articles with the right set of rules and regulations.

The English Style Guide is meant to be a handbook for the English language authors and
translators who are working for the European Commission. Since in today’s world, there are
native as well as non native English speakers who are working on the language, this guide
serves as a reminder of the rules and as a convenient reference point. The guide promotes the
requirement of clear and concise English meant for the general public without the usage of
any jargons (Strandvik 2017, 51-62).
The influence from across the Atlantic is very strong in the European Union and the influence
is very much prevalent on the English spellings as well. The British English spelling is
different from the US English, but now due to the influence of cross-Atlantic culture, many
such spellings are accepted, however, there are still quite a few which has their original
spellings as the accepted form in the European English. One has to be careful about the
interference of other languages over the world in the English language so that there is no
confusion in the European English language (Translation 2011, 5-14).
The European Commission English language ensures that the punctuations are used
according to the rules and traditions of the English language because it often differs in the
other languages. It takes into account all the forms of punctuations like full stop, comma,
colon, semicolon, dashes, brackets, question marks, exclamation marks, quotation marks and
question marks. Each of these has separate sections enumerating the detailed rules for the
usage of each (Translation 2011, 14-22).
In writing numbers, the European Commission guides that whether the numbers should be
written in words or figures should be decided to maintain a consistency within the passage.
According to the rules, numbers up to nine can be written in figures, whereas, anything above
that should be written in words. Also, any sentence should not begin with a number. The
fractions, dates and time also have their own set of rules and regulations.
The European Commission also points out that while using abbreviations, mathematical or
scientific symbols, the underlying agenda should remain to send the message clearly across to
the readers. So, in order to provide a clear understanding of abbreviations, mathematical
symbols or scientific symbols in a text, the author must give the full term within brackets.
However, scientific symbols don’t require any adaptation.
The words derived from other languages should be italicized with the proper accents. Any
obscurity in foreign languages should be dealt with clarity so that the readers are not
confused or fails to understand. The phonetic standard for transliteration called ELOT should
be followed in all languages which falls under transliteration (Translation 2011, 22-32).
The verbs used in the writings should agree to the grammatical requirements like agreement
with the singular or plural and with the tenses. In the legislative articles, the use of verbs
often gives rise to confusion since such language is not used in everyday language. Thus, for
the purpose of legislative writing, two linguistic categories have been created – imperative
terms and declarative terms.
In the case of creating lists, the word processor’s numbering system should be used so that it
is easier to amend the list when necessary. The process of creating the lists also has a set of
rules and directives which helps in creating a standardized version in all the articles of the
European Commission. The process of creating tables also has a standard set of rules, where
the main verb is not used in the tables and the formatting is also done in a standardized way,
following a certain set of rules to avoid confusion (Translation 2011, 32-39).

In the case of scientific names, the binomial system is used for classifying the living
organisms, thus, the original terms are sufficient for the understanding. The details are
provided as to the usage of various scientific names in the different fields like biology,
zoology, botany, chemistry, etc. Each of them has specifications to have a clarity of the
subject.
The handbook has detailed instruction related to the usage of endnote references, footnotes,
citations. It clearly indicates the style, even to the extent of using the punctuations correctly
in the citations and references. The handbook guides the writer or translator to even the
smallest details of creating a right kind of articles with all the right set of rules and
regulations.
The guide has detailed instruction about the letters or correspondences that passes through the
EU Commission. It has different format of letters for different scenarios for the translators
and writers. It has a set of instructions for the incoming as well as outgoing correspondences
and details the various scenarios in case of drafting letters (Translation 2011, 39-44).
In the 11th chapter of the handbook, the style of using the names and titles is also laid down to
avoid any confusion. It clearly forbids the usage of initials for the first name and categorises
the practice as non-English. The usage of titles has certain stipulations as well, especially the
ones with a foreign origin. In the case of organizational bodies, the original names should be
used for legal acts, even if they are in a foreign language. This chapter basically identifies the
places where the names should be translated into English and where the original should be
retained.
The Commission strictly advocates the usage of gender-neutral language while writing any
article. Apart from being politically correct, the Commission also believes in equal
opportunity for all. In certain cases, the writer should use personal discretion in using the
noun form, for example, Chairman or Chairwoman or simply Chair, in order to highlight or
underplay gender. In certain texts like manuals or instruction booklets, the language is more
in the second person or imperative (Translation 2011, 44-47).
The 13th chapter describes the European Union and all its details. The European Union
includes all the territories of the member States and now it has been identified as a legal body
and imbibes the community which was earlier known as the European Community. There are
several terms used in relation to the European Union, which are explained with clarity in the
handbook (Translation 2011, 51-52).
The primary legislation section of the handbook provides the treaties in forming the European
Union. There are almost 12 treaties which have been discussed in detail in the subsequent
sections. The section also discusses the methods of citing these treaties and how the articles
and subarticles should be presented when they are being cited in other articles and writings.
The diverse legal acts under the various treaties, forms the basis of the European Union’s
secondary legislation. It gradually goes on to explain the legislative procedures involved and
also the structure of the acts. The section also discusses the ways of referring to the
subdivision acts and how they can be cited in various texts or articles.
The handbook has details about all the European institutions. It includes the name of the
institution, the title of the members, the various departments within the institution, functions
of the departments and other details. The important European institutions include European
Commission, Council, European Council, European Parliament, Court of Justice of of the

European Union, Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee,
Committee of the Regions, European Central Bank, Other Financial Institutions, and
Agencies (Translation 2011, 52-68).
The European Commission publishes an official journal called Official Journal of the
European Union and is published in three separate series and each series serving a specific
purpose. The section on references to official publications provides the ways how these
publications can be cited in other articles of the European Commission.
The European Union and the institutions attached to it are primarily funded by the revenue
from their own resources. A financial perspective is exhibited in the handout to provide a
better understanding of the resources used and the budget is one of the ways of exploring the
same. It also mentions the funds that are financed from the budget of the Union (Translation
2011, 69-71).
The Member States of the European Union are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. Other than legislation, the countries are supposed
to be named in the same order. In this section, one gets the details of the permanent
representatives of the states, insight into their parliaments, judicial bodies and legislation
(Krastev 2016, 35-39).
The handout has annexes where the name of the currencies of the Member States and the
official languages is mentioned in details. It also mentions the conversion details with other
major currencies of the world.
The handout also mentions the external relations or external policies of the Commission and
the ways they deal with the non-member countries in trade and other modes of operation. It
mentions various regions of the world and the mode of dealing with these regions and brief
information related to these regions and their people. The annexes attached along with the
handout also helps in understanding various symbols and other details related to language,
translations, forms of addressing individuals and certain other aspects of the European
Commission (Translation 2011, 74-89).
Reference List
Krastev, Ivan. "What’s Wrong with East-Central Europe? Liberalism’s Failure to Deliver."
Journal of Democracy, 2016: 35-39.
Strandvik, Ingemar. "Towards a more structured approach to quality assurance."
(Bloomsbury) 2017: 51-62.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "EU Finances." In English Style
Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 69-71. European
Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Names And Titles." In English
Style Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 44-47.

European Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Numbers." In English Style
Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 22-32. European
Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Official Languages And
Currencies." In English Style Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for
Translation, 74-89. European Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Primary Legislation." In
English Style Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 52-68.
European Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Punctuation." In English Style
Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 14-22. European
Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Science Guide." In English
Style Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 39-44.
European Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Spelling." In English Style
Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 5-14. European
Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "The European Union." In
English Style Guide, by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 51-52.
European Commission, 2011.
Translation, European Commission Directorate-General for. "Verbs." In English Style Guide,
by European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, 32-39. European
Commission, 2011.