|
The languages of the European Union are languages used by people within the member states of the European Union.
They include a number of languages that are official languages of the European Union's institutions, plus many others.
EU policy is to encourage all its citizens to be multilingual; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue. The reason for this is not only to promote easier communication between Europeans, but also to encourage greater tolerance and respect for diversity.
A number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity. The content of educational systems remains the responsibility of individual Member States. Further information can be found at Language Policy (http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/lang/policy/index_en.html)
Official languages of the institutions
The official languages of the institutions of the European Union are
 The debating chamber, the 'hemicycle' of the European Parliament in Brussels; translation booths are provided near where the banners are All decisions by the institutions are translated into all official languages, and European citizens may contact the institutions and receive a reply in any official language.
For top-level meetings, interpreting into any official language is arranged as needed. Simultaneous translation between all official languages is always arranged for sessions of the European Parliament and the European Council.
Away from these formal meetings, a more flexible language régime is used. The primary working languages of the institutions are English, French and to some extent German, but other languages are used as befits the situation and the language skills of the people involved. The 1995 and 2004 expansions of the Union to countries where French is less used have strengthened the position of English and German as working languages.
The process of creating documents in this multilingual environment is described at: [1] http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/translation/bookshelf/brochure_en.pdf)
See Names of the European Union in the official languages.
Status of other languages
In 2004 there were moves by the Spanish and Irish governments to seek the status of 'official' EU languages for Basque, Catalan, Galician and Irish.
Irish
The Irish language has official status for treaty purposes; that is, all treaties are published and authentic in Irish as well as the official languages of the institutions. This limited status of the Irish language has provoked debate in Ireland, as Irish is constitutionally the first language of that state.
Catalan
The status of Catalan, spoken by many millions of citizens, but not accorded the status of official language, has also been the subject of debate. On 11 December 1990, the use of Catalan was the subject of a European Parliament Resolution (resolution A3-169/90 on languages in the (European) Community and the situation of Catalan (OJ-C19, 28 January 1991).
Provision in the Constitution
The draft European constitution is available in the 20 official languages plus Irish, and the languages of three candidate countries: Romanian, Bulgarian, and Turkish.
The version approved by the European Council contains the following provision:
- Article IV-10(2): This Treaty may also be translated into any other languages as determined by Member States among those which, in accordance with their constitutional order, enjoy official status in all or part of their territory. A certified copy of such translations shall be provided by the Member States concerned to be deposited in the archives of the Council.
Other languages of the European Union
Besides the languages of Spain (see above) and Irish there are other regional languages spoken within the EU that do not have official recognition at EU level (although they may have some official status within the member state). Some of these count many more speakers than some of the lesser-used official languages.
These include:
The Katharevousa variant of Greek is no longer official.
Although not an EU treaty, some EU member states have ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
While Esperanto is not official anywhere in the Union, it has been proposed as an international auxiliary language for the European institutions.
Language skills of European citizens
This table from the year 2000 shows what proportion of citizens said that they could speak each of the official languages of the Union, either as mother tongue or as non-mother tongue (including as foreign language):
| Language
| Proportion of population of the EU speaking it as a mother tongue
| Proportion of population of the EU speaking it NOT as a mother tongue
| Total proportion speaking this language
| | German | 24% | 8% | 32% |
| French | 16% | 12% | 28% |
| English | 16% | 31% | 47% |
| Italian | 16% | 2% | 18% |
| Spanish | 11% | 4% | 15% |
| Dutch | 6% | 1% | 7% |
| Greek | 3% | 0% | 3% |
| Portuguese | 3% | 0% | 3% |
| Swedish | 2% | 1% | 3% |
| Danish | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| Finnish | 1% | 0% | 1% |
Note: This table relates to the older 15 Member States of the European Union (source: European Commission). Data for the new Member States are not yet available.
See also
External link
| 
