Language is a major problem for the European Union (EU) . The  Treaty   of Rome ,which created the organization that finally became the EU,  stated that each country's language must be treated equally. The original six countries had only three languages between them: French, German and Dutch/Flemish. However, there are now 15 countries in the EU, with a total of 12 languages. EU documents must be translated into all these languages, and at official meetings the speeches must be translated into all the languages by interpreters. All this translating is very expensive and time-consuming. It is said that nearly half of all employees of the EU are engaged in translating documents and speeches and nearly half of the EU's administrative   costs are spent on this task. In the near future it is probable that several more countries, most of them having their own languages, will join the EU, thus making the situation even worse. The problem is just cost; there are practical difficulties as well. With 12 languages, there are 132 possible "translation situations" that might be needed. It is often difficult to find people in the right place at the right time who can translate from, for example, Danish into Greek, or Dutch into Portuguese, at a high professional standard. In practice the problem has been less serious by the use of English in many contacts between EU officials , since almost all of them speak some English. However, any move to reduce the number of official languages (perhaps to four or five) would be a blow to the pride of the smaller countries. Another commonly suggested solution is to make English the official language for all EU business. However, this is strongly resisted by powerful member countries like France and Germany . The writer mentions "Danish into Greek" as an example of   _  .
a situation that occurs often. a situation that might be difficult to deal with . languages easily being interpreted. one of the 12 situations that requires an interpreter