English is the dominant language of Ireland, Malta (and Scotland and Wales) but as each has a "national" language and English had already been selected by the UK, Ireland nominated Irish and Malta Maltese as an official EU language.

So at the moment there is no country that has claimed English as its official language for EU purposes, thus it's legally OK to ignore anything official from or within the EU that is in English.

Malta has the population of Oakland, but most of the people there apparently speak Maltese. Ireland has about half the population of the Bay Area but only about 40% of them claim to have some facility in Irish. In both countries it appears English is universally understood and spoken. (all this info from Wikipedia FWIW).

I think it would be smart for the EU to nominate an English (of some sort) as the supranational language as it would elevate no member state over another. This same approach has worked pretty well for India, where the use of that language has a far more fraught history. But Malta or Ireland could simply take one for the team and switch their nominated language.