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SCMP Reporter

WHEN Etienne Reuter speaks his native tongue, only three other people in Hong Kong can understand him.

   ''Luxemburgish is an ancient language that equates to the type of German that was spoken around the year 1500 AD,'' said the head of the European Union office in Hong Kong.

  ''It sounds rather like modern German, but has different vowel sounds, includes a lot of old French words and is also peppered with modern terminology.

  ''The vowel switch is interesting. My name, Reuter, means man on a horse. See how close that is to the English word rider.''   As well as being only one of four Luxemburgish speakers in Hong Kong, Mr Reuter is the only one in his family who can speak the ancient language.

   ''So, I don't get to use it very often,'' he said.

  Even in Luxembourg only a third of the population can speak it but, as all of its citizens are schooled in French and German, they are far from being tongue-tied.

  A lawyer by training, he is also fluent in English and can read and draft legal documents in all three languages. He also has reasonable Spanish and Italian.

  Mr Reuter said the proliferation of languages could become a major problem for the European Union (EU) as it expanded.

  All 12 languages of existing member states are regarded as official languages of the union. All documents have to be produced in all languages, and the EU has the world's largest interpretation and translation service.

  ''For a meeting of 12 government ministers, we need 27 interpreters for simultaneous translation. It's a bonanza for linguistic services, but it may become too unwieldy when Finland, Sweden and Norway join the EU,'' he said.

  ''If the linguistic services go on strike - and they have - they paralyse the work of all the European institutions.''   Luxembourg's role as a founding member of both what is now the EU and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is easily accounted for.

  ''We have been invaded countless times in European wars and suffered especially heavily in both the world wars,'' Mr Reuter said.

  ''So, naturally, we are anxious that the EU and NATO continue as guarantors of peace and security.

  ''We are not a belligerent people and we have only 600 men in our standing army. But we do our share by having some of NATO's airborne warning and command planes stationed at Luxembourg airport.''   Mr Reuter's official role is to represent the EU in Hong Kong, a job he deliberately sought out when he heard an office was to be set up here.

  ''The transfer of sovereignty will be a unique moment in history and I wanted to be here to witness it,'' he said.

  In the six months since arriving, he said he had been hugely impressed with the Hong Kong system and the practical, pragmatic approach of its business community.

  ''It is also possible to achieve results so fast. I know of a Hong Kong entrepreneur who spotted a chance to manufacture baseballs in China and has recouped the initial investment in just 18 months.

  ''I also want to correct some of the wrong impressions that Hong Kong residents seem to have about the EU.

  ''Europe is often presented as being less than keen about a genuine free market, perhaps even slightly protectionist.

  ''But that's because the main source of information about the EU in this region still seems to be the British media - which is often 'Euro-sceptic' in its tone,'' Mr Reuter said.

  A second aspect of his work was to encourage Europe to pay more attention to this region.

   ''Our focus has been within Europe, or on eastern Europe, for too long. I want to alert European business to the enormous opportunities in Asia,'' he said.



Europe's top man in Hong Kong