Politicians in Europe often try to speak each other's languages, with mixed results.

English is the most widely spoken lingua franca, but has its pitfalls. For instance, the letter "J" can be pronounced as in 'jam' or as in 'jugoslavia'. Perhaps this explains why the Swedish Prime Minister announced his priorities for the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council as "Yobs, Yobs, Yobs".

Not to mention the MEP who said, when it was time to leave a meeting, "Alors, c'est l'heure", only to find that one of the British MEPs thought he said "Hello sailor"!

Even monoglots can make linguistic cock-ups. Brian Simpson MEP, debating the proposed "open skies" air travel agreement with the USA at a time of embarrassing revelations about the US President, referred to Mr Clinton's support for an "open flies agreement"!