Bulgarian MEP Calls for Fair Use of Cyrillic at EP

Bulgarian socialist MEP Ivaylo Kalfin. File photo, Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgarian PES MEP Ivaylo Kalfin has sent a letter to European Parliament President Martin Schulz calling for an equal treatment of the Cyrillic script with the Latin at the European institution.

Kalfin used May 24 as the date for the letter, the day Bulgarian's celebrate the work of Sts Cyril and Methodius who were instrumental in developing the alphabet.

"For more than 1,000 years now Cyrillic is one of the chief elements of Bulgarian identity. This script has been used by the Bulgarian state and church ever since the Middle Ages. This is the alphabet by means of which my compatriots get to know the world and communicate with it," wrote the socialist MEP.

In particular, Kalfin requested the transliteration of all Latin and Greek-spelled names of persons or localities into Cyrillic, arguing that it should present no difficulty if based on a handful of simple rules.

"Since Cyrillic names may be also written in the Latin script, then the reverse is manifestly possible and only just," stated Kalfin.

The Bulgarian MEP also brought to the fore the fact that the European Parliament is the institution most covered by Bulgarian media, which according to him only makes the necessity to more widely use the Cyrillic even stronger.

According to Kalfin, writing foreign names in Cyrillic in official EP documents in Bulgarian is only "a due act of respect for Bulgarian citizens."

As Bulgaria's Minister of Foreign Affairs (2001-5), Kalfin was instrumental in imposing the requirement that the name of the EU common currency, the euro, be also written in the Cyrillic.

Currently, Bulgaria is the only among the EU's 27 member states to use the Cyrillic. All other countries except Greece use the Latin script.

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