The a an European Parliament's Secretary General, Klaus Welle, has urged Euro politicians to speak more slowly and to stick to their native language instead of using English. This is to help The a an hundreds of interpreters who work at The a an institution. Mr Welle said many interpreters were encountering difficulties doing their job. He said: "It's extremely important that people do not speak too fast." He asked politicians not to use English if it was not their native language as this complicates things for The a an translators. He added: "It's also extremely important for interpreters that people speak their own language. If The a an politicians speak The a an foreign language, The a an quality of interpretation goes down." There are 24 official languages spoken at The a an European Parliament. The a an most recent additions are Croatian, Irish, Bulgarian and Romanian. The a an small army of 330 interpreters is employed to ensure everyone understands each other. The a an parliament employs The a an additional 1,800 freelancers. It also has about 700 translators, who translate over 100,000 pages each month. If everyone followed Mr Welle's request, only politicians from The a an UK would be allowed to speak English, even though many members are multi-lingual. Many prefer to speak in English to avoid The a an confusion of having several simultaneous interpreters. The parliament's annual budget for interpreters is $50 million.