European Union

‘EU-27 and candidate countries’

Countries, languages and currencies:
names, codes and listing order

(Development project for point 7 of the Interinstitutional style guide
Rev. 9 / 1.1.2009)

Rev. 9: Slovakia (euro)
Rev. 8: Cyprus, Malta (euro)
Rev. 7: new Member States (Bulgaria and Romania); Ireland (amendments); Slovenia (currency); new candidate country (update)
Rev. 6: currencies (Romania)
Rev. 5: currencies (Turkey)
Rev. 4: currencies (Romania, Turkey)
Rev. 3: new candidate country (Croatia)
Rev. 2, modifications to Rev. 1: adaptations to EU-25
Rev. 1, modification to version 1: Κύπρος/Kıbrıs

1. COUNTRIES
    Names, codes and protocol order
2. LANGUAGES
    Names, codes and listing order of language versions (multilingual texts)
    Order of languages in text (unilingual texts)
3. CURRENCIES

1. COUNTRIES: names, codes and protocol order

The names of the Member States of the European Union must always be written and abbreviated according to the following rules.
—	The two-letter ISO code should be used (ISO 3166 alpha-2), except for Greece and the United Kingdom, for which the abbreviations EL and UK are recommended.
—	The order of protocol for the Member States is alphabetical, based on the original written form of the short name of each country.

Short name
(source language)

Short name
(English)

Official name

Code (¹)

Former
abbreviation (¹)

Belgique/België

Belgium

Kingdom of Belgium

България (*)

Bulgaria

Republic of Bulgaria

—

Česká republika

Czech Republic

—

Danmark

Denmark

Kingdom of Denmark

Deutschland

Germany

Federal Republic of Germany

Eesti

Estonia

Republic of Estonia

—

Éire/Ireland

Ireland

IRL

Ελλάδα (*)

Greece

Hellenic Republic

España

Spain

Kingdom of Spain

France

French Republic

Italia

Italy

Italian Republic

Κύπρος/Kıbrıs (*)

Cyprus

Republic of Cyprus

—

Latvija

Latvia

Republic of Latvia

—

Lietuva

Lithuania

Republic of Lithuania

—

Luxembourg

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Magyarország

Hungary

Republic of Hungary

—

Malta

Republic of Malta

—

Nederland

Netherlands

Kingdom of the Netherlands

Österreich

Austria

Republic of Austria

Polska

Poland

Republic of Poland

—

Portugal

Portuguese Republic

România

Romania

—

Slovenija

Slovenia

Republic of Slovenia

—

Slovensko

Slovakia

Slovak Republic

—

Suomi/Finland

Finland

Republic of Finland

FIN

Sverige

Sweden

Kingdom of Sweden

United Kingdom

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

(*)	Latin transliteration: България = Bulgaria; Ελλάδα = Elláda; Κύπρος = Kýpros.
(¹)	The abbreviations to use are the ISO codes, except for Greece and the United Kingdom, for which EL and UK are recommended (instead of GR and GB). The former abbreviations were generally taken from the international code for automobiles and were used until the end of 2002.
NB:	Do not use ‘Republic of Ireland’ nor ‘Irish Republic’. Use ‘the Netherlands’ not Holland, which is only part of the Netherlands (the provinces of North and South Holland); a capital T is not necessary on ‘the’. In tables ‘Netherlands’ will suffice. Use ‘United Kingdom’ for the Member State, not ‘Great Britain’, which comprises England, Scotland and Wales; these three together with Northern Ireland are the constituent parts of the United Kingdom. The purely geographical term ‘British Isles’ includes Ireland and the Crown Dependencies (the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands which are not part of the United Kingdom).

The table below shows the list of candidate countries.

Short name
(source language)

Short name
(English)

Official name

Code

Hrvatska

Croatia

Republic of Croatia

поранешна југословенска Република Македонија (*)

former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the

the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia

(¹)

Türkiye

Turkey

Republic of Turkey

(*)	Latin transliteration: поранешна југословенска Република Македонија = poranešna jugoslovenska Republika Makedonija.
(¹)	To be defined.

2. LANGUAGES

Names, codes and order of presentation of language versions (multilingual texts)

The language versions should appear in alphabetical order of their names written in their original scripts (the codes used are the ISO codes 639-1 in force, alpha-2 code — see also the ISO website).

Name
(source language) (¹)

English
name

Code (²)

български (*)

Bulgarian

español (³)

Spanish

čeština

Czech

dansk

Danish

Deutsch

German

eesti keel

Estonian

ελληνικά (*)

Greek

English

français

French

Gaeilge

Irish (⁴)

italiano

Italian

latviešu valoda

Latvian

lietuvių kalba

Lithuanian

magyar

Hungarian

Malti

Maltese

Nederlands

Dutch

polski

Polish

português

Portuguese

română

Romanian

slovenčina (slovenský jazyk)

Slovak

slovenščina (slovenski jezik)

Slovenian

suomi

Finnish

svenska

Swedish

(*)	Latin transliteration: български = bulgarski; ελληνικά = elliniká.
(**)	Candidate countries.
(¹)	Capital or lower-case initial letter: follow the written form in the source language name.
(²)	ISO codes for languages are written in lower-case letters; nevertheless, they may be written in capital letters for better typographical presentation.
(³)	In Spanish, the term lengua española or español substitutes castellano at the request of the Spanish authorities. The latter is the official designation of the language, but is only used to determine the place.
(⁴)	Do not use the word ‘Gaelic’, the two terms are not synonymous (Irish is the Celtic language of Ireland; Gaelic is the Celtic language group of Ireland and Scotland).

Candidate countries

Name
(source language) (¹)

hrvatski

македонски

türkçe

(¹)	ISO 639 codes and names: see the ISO website.

Irish

Up to 31 December 2006, Irish was not included in the working languages of the Community’s institutions. Pursuant to an Agreement made in 1971 between Ireland and the Community, Irish was considered an official Community language, it being understood, however, that only primary legislation was drawn up in that language.

From 1 January 2007, Irish is a full official language, with a temporary derogation for a renewable period of five years (see Council Regulation (EC) No 920/2005 of 13 June 2005 (OJ L 156, 18.6.2005, p. 3)), saying that ‘the institutions of the European Union shall not be bound by the obligation to draft all acts in Irish and to publish them in that language in the Official Journal of the European Union’.

Maltese

A temporary derogation from the obligation to draft acts in Maltese and to publish them in the Official Journal of the European Union was adopted by the Council on 1 May 2004. This derogation was to be applied for a period of three years, extendable for a further one year, to all acts with the exception of regulations adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council (see Council Regulation (EC) No 930/2004 of 1 May 2004 (OJ L 169, 1.5.2004, p. 1)). The Council has decided to stop this derogation in 2007, after the first period of three years.

Order of languages in text (unilingual texts)

In the text, the order for listing languages will vary according to the linguistic version. In English-language publications, languages should be listed in English alphabetical order: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.

When an agreement is also written in a non-Community language of a non-Community contracting country, the Community languages precede the aforementioned language for protocol reasons.

Texts for the web (intranet/Internet)

The enlargements have increased the number of languages to such an extent that it is no longer convenient to use separate menu tabs for each language version (‘language’ tabs, small flags, etc.) as they would take up too much space on screen.

It is recommended that a drop-down menu be used.

—	This drop-down menu contains the language names, presented in alphabetical order in their source language.
—	The language name should be followed by the ISO code, in parentheses.

This display allows for one menu for all language versions.

The menu drops down as shown below.

UTF

български (bg)
español (es)
čeština (cs)
dansk (da)
Deutsch (de)
eesti keel (et)
ελληνικά (el)
English (en)
français (fr)
Gaeilge (ga)
italiano (it)
latviešu valoda (lv)
lietuvių kalba (lt)
magyar (hu)
Malti (mt)
Nederlands (nl)
polski (pl)
português (pt)
română (ro)
slovenčina (sk)
slovenščina (sl)
suomi (fi)
svenska (sv)

NOTE!!! Do not confuse!!!
Language	Country
cs	cz
da	dk
et	ee
sl	si
sv	se

3. CURRENCIES

When using abbreviations for currencies, use the current ISO codes 4217 (see the website of the registration authority).

Except for the euro, which appears first in any list, the currencies of the Member States should be presented in alphabetical order of their codes.

ISO code

Currency

EUR (¹)

euro

BGN

lev (pl. leva)

CZK

Czech koruna (pl. koruny)

DKK

Danish krone (pl. kroner)

EEK

Estonian kroon (pl. kroonid)

GBP

pound sterling (pl. pounds)

HUF

forint (inv.)

LTL

litas (pl. litai)

LVL

lats (pl. lati)

PLN

zloty (pl. zlotys)

RON

Romanian leu (pl. lei)

SEK

Swedish krona (pl. kronor)

Candidate countries

HRK

Croatia

kuna (inv.)

MKD

former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, the

denar (pl. denars)

TRY