With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on January1, 2007, the Cyrillic alphabet became the third official alphabet of the EU, after the Latin and the Greek alphabets. The Cyrillic alphabet is used by several East and South Slavic languages including Belarusian, Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian. It is also used in Mongolia and two Central Asian states.
Bulgarian Maria Dimitrova, a Hong Kong-based linguistics researcher, said: 'The Cyrillic alphabet is an easy-to-learn phonetic writing system, which is also very democratic because it's always adapted to reflect changes in the local language.'
The accession of Bulgaria (and Romania on the same date) means the EU has 23 official and working languages. The language with the most native speakers is German, with English being the most spoken foreign language. French and German follow next. About 56 per cent of EU citizens can hold a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue.
The EU provides interpretation, translation and publication services in its official languages, but only legislation and other crucial documents are produced in all 23 official languages; other documents are translated only into the languages needed.
What kind of future does the Cyrillic alphabet have in the EU, whose borders seem so moveable? 'Bulgaria borders two former Yugoslavia states that use the Cyrillic alphabet primarily. Another Former Yugoslav republic, Slovenia, is already in the EU; it's not hard to envisage expansion that will increase the role of Cyrillic in the EU,' said Ms Dimitrova.