Plain English and the EU: Still Trying to Fight the Fog?

Abstract

The plain English movement has now been active for almost 50 years and legalese was one of its first targets worldwide because of the role of English as lingua franca in the legal sector. The European Union took up the challenge at the beginning of the 1980s, with proclamations of its intention to turn complex institutional language into clear and effective writing set out in various guidelines and glossaries. Almost 40 years later, has the EU really been able to “fight the fog”? I am going to answer this question by looking at the main EU clear writing hints and by comparing them with the official recommendations by the plain English campaign. After this overview, I will explore the implementation of the plain English guidelines by the European institutions by analysing the main EU Competition Law legislation