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Eurojargon is a colloquial term often found in recent British journalism. It refers to terminology relating to the European Union, and comes in several forms.
Terms Beginning with the Prefix Euro-
Often Eurojargon is created by combining the prefix "Euro-" with another word. The meanings of these words, however, are easily comprehended. For example: Euroscepticism is scepticism about, or disagreement with, the purposes of the European Union, sometimes coupled with a wish to preserve national sovereignty. ...
A Europhile is a term for a person who wants to reduce government on the level of the nation-state and increase centralised government by the European Union. ...
A euromyth is piece of infomation about the European Union that is untrue. ...
Eurojust (also spelled capitalised as EUROJUST) is a European Union body composed of national prosecutors, magistrates or police officers of equivalent competence from each of the European Unions member states. ...
Europol (the name is a contraction of European Police Office) is the European Unions criminal intelligence agency. ...
The Eurozone (also called Euro-area or Euroland) is the subset of European Union member states which have adopted the Euro (€) currency, creating a currency union. ...
Necessary Terminology There are many terms required to discuss the new political structure of the European Union. These terms are unusual but can be learned. For example: The codecision procedure is the main legislative procedure by which law can be adopted in the European Community, the first of the three pillars of the European Union. ...
Convergence means approaching a definite value, as time goes on; or approaching a definite point, or a common view or opinion, or a fixed state of affairs. ...
Subsidiarity is the idea that matters should be handled by the lowest competent authority. ...
Faux Amis There are some unusual words and phrases that occur in the English-language versions of the documents of the European Union, which are faux amis from some other language, commonly French. Such words are written in the form of ordinary English words, i.e., they lack accent marks and do not appear in italics, as is common for words entering the English language. As there are many words which the English language has taken from French, slightly modified: photography, automobile, airplane, athlete, and even patriotic, the Eurocrats think that this applies to political words as well. Yet German actually takes words from French more readily than English. Examples which may flummox English-speaking persons include: False friends are pairs of words in two languages or letters in two alphabets that look or sound similar but differ in meaning. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
- actual for "topical", or "current"
- adequate for "suitable"
- competences for "spheres in which power may be exterted"
- complete for "supplement"
- eventual for "any"
- important for "large"
- opportunity for "advisability"
- stagiaire for "trainee", or "intern"
- statute for "staff regulations"
- third countries for "non-member countries"
This is the group of words which makes European documents most impenetrable to English-speaking readers. The authors do not know that they are doing this. Competencies represent clusters of skills, abilities and knowledges needed to perform jobs. ...
Specialist Terminology There are some terms which are used by specialists in the EU project which are not quite faux amis, but which are nonetheless obscure. Examples include: | 
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