Abstract: This paper aims at presenting the legal frame for the multilingualism in Europe, the reasons behind the European Union’s policy on multilingualism and the most important measures and acts in this field. The effects of the ‘multicentric language policy’ include measures to improve citizens’ language skills at the level of member states and at central level to ensure the functionality of the EU institutions and bodies by employing translators, interpreters and lawyer-linguists. An indirect effect from a linguistic point of view would be the development of the European legal style, which could be observed also at the level of each individual official language, corresponding to the development of the member states’ legal systems under the influence of EU law.

Keywords: multicentric language policy, UE, multilingualism, legal translations