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“He” or “She”, that’s the question…

(BRUXELLES2, exclusive) Can we say "elle" (she) for the High Representative? Or should we say "he" (he)? The question seems trivial. And yet, it was posed quite officially at the meeting of Member States' ambassadors (at Coreper) before the adoption of the brand new diplomatic service (1). And in the most serious way, the Council's legal department was approached on this very serious question and handed over a 4-page note (no less) to the ambassadors.

Conclusion of the lawyers: the modification requested "does not correspond to the text of the Treaties and is not compatible with the rules and practices in force in the Council". In support of this assertion, there are several sets of arguments.

Tricky in principle, difficult in practice

In accordance with common practice for other functions (President of the Commission, of the Court of Justice, etc.), the masculine gender is usually used, note the lawyers. Of course there are some exceptions. As in the English and Irish version of the Treaty where some articles mention (for the High Representative) "he or she...". It's a "erreur" do we estimate that the legal department will need "rectifier" at one point.

Dictionary definitions (Oxford type) also support this assertion but also practical difficulties. If we systematically added the feminine gender to the masculine gender, it would be necessary to modify all the versions of the treaties as well as all the existing texts. Which is no picnic. Especially now that we have just adopted the Lisbon Treaty, there may be other emergencies. Especially since in some languages, it is not enough to insert the feminine gender, you have to review the whole sentence. This introduces an additional risk of error (in the translation).

Moreover, during the negotiations of the Treaty of Lisbon, we considered, for a moment, to review this practice. This option was not retained.

Phew! We escaped a new institutional battle.

NB: the law is the law. Nevertheless, in usual practice, one can call Lady Ashton "High Representative" or "Vice-President of the Commission" (which she apparently wishes) without inconvenience, in the same way as the Commissioner is said.

(1) Read: The European diplomatic service - the texts

The diplomatic service voted in the European Parliament (update)

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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