Case Comment on Kik v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market

The rubric of a European Union in which Member States unite in their diversities is firmly sewn into the ideology of European integration; and the composite multilingualism of the EU is an obvious badge of diversity. Both the ideology and the multilingual reality must, however, find appropriate weightings in an equation of linguistic balance - a formula comprising: 1. culture and fundamental rights, 2. efficiency and economy, 3. communication and representation, 4. differentiation, 5. diversity, 6. progress and tradition, 7. preservation and innovation, and 8. participation, citizenship, governance, and respect. But for present purposes, the questions provoked by these competing values will be concentrated on just one aspect of EU language functions - the rules that govern the EU administration. In a series of 4 cases, it was sought to establish that the EU institutions have got the balance wrong.