A file photo of EU flag.The European Parliament has banned the terms 'Miss' and 'Mrs' in case they offend female MEPs.

The European Parliament has banned the terms 'Miss' and 'Mrs' in case they offend female MEPs.

The politically correct rules also mean a ban on Continental¹ titles, such as Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita.

Guidance issued in a new 'Gender-Neutral Language' pamphlet orders politicians to address female members by their full name only.

Officials have alo ordered that 'sportsmen' be called 'athletes', 'statesmen' be referred to as 'political leaders' and even that 'synthetic²' or 'artificial' be used instead of 'man-made'.

The guidance lists banned terms for describing professions, including fireman, air hostess, headmaster, policeman, salesman, manageress, cinema usherette and male nurse.

However MEPs are still allowed to refer to 'midwives' as there is no accepted male version of the job description.

The booklet also admits that "no gender-neutral term has been successfully proposed" to replace 'waiter' and 'waitress', allowing parliamentarians to use these words in a restaurant or café.

It has been circulated by Harold Romer, the parliament's secretary general, to the 785 MEPs working in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Struan Stevenson, a Scottish Conservative MEP described the guidelines as "political correctness gone mad."

He said: "We have seen the EU institutions try to ban the bagpipes³ and dictate⁴ the shape of bananas, but now they see determined⁵ to tell us which words we are entitled to use in our own language."

Philip Bradbourn, another Conservative MEP, vowed⁶ to ignore the booklet, which he described as a "waste of taxpayers⁷' money" and called on Mr Romer to reveal its cost.

He added: "I will have no part of it. I will continue to use my own language and expressions, which I have used all my life, and will not be instructed by this institution or anyone else in these matters."

Seven years ago, an attempt to amend⁸ noise laws came close to effectively outlawing⁹ bagpipes.

However, a number of bizarre EU rules remain in place, including a directive stating that every pair of rubber boots must be supplied with a user's manual in 12 languages.

欧洲议会日前颁发一项新规则，禁止使用“Miss（小姐）”和“Mrs（夫人）”称呼女性，以免冒犯女性议员。

同时，欧洲大陆的类似称谓也被禁用，如Madame 和Mademoiselle（法语）, Frau和 Fraulein （德语）以及 Senora 和 Senorita（西班牙语）等。

这项名为“中性语言”的新规则规定政界人士在称呼女性时必须使用全名。

此外，在称呼运动员时应用athletes来代替sportsmen，在称呼政治家时应用political leaders代替statesmen，甚至在表达“人造”时也要用synthetic或artificial来代替man-made。

这一规则列出了一批描述职业禁用词汇，其中包括fireman（消防员），airhostess（空中小姐），headmaster（校长），policeman（警察）， salesman（销售员）， manageress（女经理）， cinema usherette（影院女引座员） 和 male nurse（男护士）等。

不过类似midwives（助产士）这种没有对应的另一种性别称谓的词语还可以继续使用。

手册中还提到，“目前没有合适的中性词语”来取代waiter和waitress这两个词，所以议员们在餐馆或咖啡馆还可继续使用它们。

这本手册由欧洲议会秘书长哈罗尔德•罗默颁发，适用于在布鲁塞尔和斯特拉斯堡工作的785名议员。

苏格兰保守派议员斯图恩•史蒂文森称这一规则是“政治正确性狂热”的一种表现。

他说：“欧洲议会曾试图禁止使用风笛，规定香蕉的形状，现在他们又来告诉我们在使用自己的语言时有权使用哪些词语。”

另外一位保守派议员菲利普•布拉德布恩表示不会理会这个规则，他评价称，颁布这个规则“是在浪费纳税人的钱”，并要求罗默公布成本。

他说：“我不会理会这些规定。我将继续使用自己的语言和表达，我都用了一辈子了，不会去听从这个机构或某个人的指示。”

七年前，欧洲议会曾试图修订噪音法，内容甚至包括禁止使用风笛，不过最终没有通过。

尽管如此，欧盟还是有不少稀奇古怪的规定，其中包括橡胶靴的使用手册必须要翻译成12种语言。