A different kind of role for English is encountered at meetings where a large number of nations each has the right to participate using its own language. The European Union is the most complex example, where eleven member states (in 1995) were presenting a situation in which as many as 110 pairs of languages require translation services (French/English, French/German, French/Finnish, etc.). It is impossible to find expert translators for all language pairs, or to provide maximum coverage on all occasions, so efforts have been made to find alternative procedures (other than asking some of the countries to give up their official status).