Post-European Council: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2020-12-16
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

I have one final point to make before I finish with this particular part of the debate. Deputy Pringle raised issues of plain English. It is something in which I am very interested. The classic example of bad English for me is the name CETA for the Canada-EU trade agreement. I would love to know who conceived of that particular title for the agreement because it makes the issue confusing and scary. When 27 member states, the vast majority of whose representatives are not native English speakers, are trying to negotiate wording and unanimously agree on something, as they did on climate change, throughout the night, the results may end up being a little bit complex to read. It is the result of a multilingual democratic process. Perhaps it is something that could be looked at.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-12-16