HELSINKI (Reuters) - Germany and Finland have made a reluctant peace in a bitter dispute about the provision of German translation at some meetings during the Finnish presidency of the European Union, officials said. „As far as I understand the language dispute has ceased to exist,“ a Finnish diplomat involved in the argument told Reuters. Germany and Austria have boycotted two informal ministerial meetings since the six-month Finnish presidency started in July as Helsinki refused to provide full German translation in addition to English, French and Finnish. The two nations had threatened to stay away from two more of the 10 upcoming informal gatherings — of education and housing ministers — where the Finns also planned no full German translation. Finland argued it was applying standard EU practice and common sense in avoiding having additional bureaucracy at the meetings, which serve as brainstorming sessions but cannot formally decide on any issues. But fearing the prolonged row with Germany would ruin its first stint at the EU‘s helm, Helsinki caved in last week, agreeing to provide German interpretation at the education ministers‘ meeting on September 24-25. It held firm, though, about not providing it at the housing ministers‘ meeting, saying it was technically impossible. Full language services require setting up a separate booth for the interpreter and audio systems. A German diplomat told Reuters Berlin had no choice but to accept the argument, but added it was not yet clear whether Germany would attend the meeting. Germany has said Finland‘s refusal to treat German, the native tongue of nearly 90 million of EU citizens, on par with English and French was a breach of the recent status quo. „People treat us as a bear in the china shop, but no one wants to realise we are defending the status quo,“ the German diplomat said. Finnish diplomats say the issue should be decided by the EU at a higher political level, but they are upset Germany put so much pressure on their small nation over the issue.