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Languages of the European Union

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Languages of the European Union
Multilingual sign in the European Parliament
Official
RegionalRussian, Luxembourgish, Turkish, Sami languages, Basque, Catalan, Galician, Breton, Romani, Albanian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Occitan, Arpitan, Corsican, Sardinian
ImmigrantArabic, Armenian, Chinese, Berber languages, Kurdish languages, Hebrew
SignedMany sign languages, in the French Sign Language family, German Sign Language family and Swedish Sign Language family; also the Maltese Sign Language
Keyboard layout

The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which three – English, French and German – were considered "procedural" languages but this notion was abandoned[1] by the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working languages).[2] In fact English and French are used in the day-to-day workings of the institutions of the EU. Institutions have the right to define the linguistic regime of their working [3] but the Commission and a number of other institutions did not do this as indicated by several Court judgments [4]

The EU asserts that it is in favour of linguistic diversity. This principle is enshrined in the EU Charter of fundamental rights (art. 22) and in the Treaty on European Union (art. 3(3) TEU). In the EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, and the EU does not have a common language policy; EU institutions play a supporting role in this field, based on the principle of "subsidiarity"; they promote a European dimension in the member states' language policies. The EU encourages all its citizens to be multilingual; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their native language.[5] Though the EU has very limited influence in this area, as the content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states, a number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity.[6]

All 24 official languages of the EU are accepted as working languages, but in practice only three – English, French, and German – are in wide general use in its institutions, and of these, English[7][8][9][10] is the most commonly used. The most widely understood language in the EU is English, which is understood by 44% of all adults, while German is the most widely used mother tongue, spoken by 18%. French is an official language in all three of the cities that are political centres of the Union: Brussels, Belgium; Strasbourg, France; and Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Since the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2020, the government of France has encouraged greater use of French as a working language.[11]

Luxembourgish and Turkish, which have official status in Luxembourg and Cyprus, respectively, are the only two official languages of EU member states that are not official languages of the EU. In 2023, the Spanish government requested that its co-official languages Catalan, Basque, and Galician be added to the official languages of the EU.[12]

Official EU languages

[edit]

As of 30 July 2023, the official languages of the European Union, as stipulated in the latest amendment of Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community of 1958, are:[13][14][dead link]

Language Official in (de jure or de facto) Since
At national level At subnational level
Bulgarian Bulgaria 2007
Croatian Croatia Austria[nb 1]
Hungary[nb 2]
Italy[nb 3]
2013
Czech Czechia Slovakia[nb 4] 2004
Danish Denmark Germany[nb 5] 1973
Dutch Belgium
Netherlands
1958
English Ireland
Malta
1973
Estonian Estonia 2004
Finnish Finland
Sweden[nb 6]
1995
French Belgium
France
Luxembourg
Italy[nb 7] 1958
German Austria
Belgium
Germany
Luxembourg
Denmark[nb 8]
Italy[nb 9]
Poland[nb 10]
1958
Greek Cyprus
Greece
1981
Hungarian Hungary Austria[nb 1]
Romania[nb 4]
Slovakia[nb 4]
Slovenia[nb 11]
Croatia[nb 12]
2004
Irish Ireland 2007
Italian Italy Croatia[nb 13]
Slovenia[nb 14]
1958
Latvian Latvia 2004
Lithuanian Lithuania Poland[nb 15] 2004
Maltese Malta 2004
Polish Poland 2004
Portuguese Portugal 1986
Romanian Romania 2007
Slovak Slovakia
Czechia[nb 16]
Hungary[nb 17]
2004
Slovene Slovenia Austria[nb 18]
Hungary[nb 19]
Italy[nb 20]
2004
Spanish Spain 1986
Swedish Finland
Sweden
1995
  1. ^ a b Co-official status in certain municipalities in the State of Burgenland[15][16]
  2. ^ Region of Transdanubia.
  3. ^ Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
  4. ^ a b c Co-official status in the municipalities in which the size of the minority population meets the legal threshold of 20%.
  5. ^ State of Schleswig-Holstein
  6. ^ Recognized minority language.[17]
  7. ^ Region of Aosta Valley
  8. ^ Region of Southern Jutland
  9. ^ Province of South Tyrol
  10. ^ 22 gminas in Opole Voivodeship
  11. ^ Co-official in certain municipalities in the region of Prekmurje
  12. ^ Region of Osijek-Baranja County.
  13. ^ in Istria County
  14. ^ Co-official in certain municipalities in the region of Slovenian Istria
  15. ^ Gmina Puńsk in Podlaskie Voivodeship
  16. ^ Co-official status in the Czech Republic under certain circumstances, which is defined by several laws.
  17. ^ Recognized minority language.
  18. ^ Co-official status in certain municipalities in the State of Carinthia[16]
  19. ^ County of Vas
  20. ^ Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia

The number of member states exceeds the number of official languages, as several national languages are shared by two or more countries in the EU. Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, and Swedish are all official languages at the national level in multiple countries (see table above). In addition, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Slovene are official languages in multiple EU countries at the regional level.[citation needed]

Furthermore, not all national languages have been accorded the status of official EU languages. These include Luxembourgish, an official language of Luxembourg since 1984, and Turkish, an official language of Cyprus.[citation needed]

All languages of the EU are also working languages.[14] Documents which a member state or a person subject to the jurisdiction of a member state sends to institutions of the Community may be drafted in any one of the official languages selected by the sender. The reply is drafted in the same language. Regulations and other documents of general application are drafted in the twenty-four official languages. The Official Journal of the European Union is published in the twenty-four official languages.[citation needed]

Documents of major public importance or interest are produced in all official languages, but that accounts for a minority of the institutions′ work. Other documents—e.g., communications with the national authorities, decisions addressed to particular individuals or entities and correspondence—are translated only into the languages needed. For internal purposes the EU institutions are allowed by law to choose their own language arrangements. The European Commission, for example, conducts its internal business in three languages, English, French, and German (sometimes called "procedural languages"), and goes fully multilingual only for public information and communication purposes. The European Parliament, on the other hand, has members who need working documents in their own languages, so its document flow is fully multilingual from the outset.[18] Non-institutional EU bodies are not legally obliged to make language arrangement for all the 24 languages [19]

The translations are expensive.[20] According to the EU's English-language website,[21] the cost of maintaining the institutions’ policy of multilingualism—i.e., the cost of translation and interpretation—was €1,123 million in 2005, which is 1% of the annual general budget of the EU, or €2.28 per person per year. The EU Parliament has made clear that its member states have autonomy for language education, which by treaty the Union must respect.[22]

Language families

[edit]
Language family tree of EU official languages

The vast majority of the 24 official EU languages belong to the Indo-European family: the three dominant subfamilies are the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. Germanic languages are primarily spoken in central and northern Europe and include Danish, Dutch, English, German, and Swedish. Romance languages are mostly spoken in western and southern European regions; they include French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. The Slavic languages are predominantly found in central Europe and the Balkans in southeastern Europe; they include Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene. The Baltic languages, Latvian and Lithuanian; the Celtic languages, including Irish; and Greek are also Indo-European.[citation needed]

Outside the Indo-European family, Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian are Uralic languages, while Maltese is the only Afroasiatic language with official status in the EU.[citation needed]

Writing systems

[edit]
10 euro note from the new Europa series written in Latin and Greek alphabets (EURO and ΕΥΡΩ, respectively), and also in the Cyrillic alphabet (ЕВРО), as a result of Bulgaria joining the European Union in 2007

Most official EU languages are written in the Latin script. The two exceptions are Greek, which is written in the Greek script, and Bulgarian, which is written in Cyrillic script. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek scripts.[23] The original design of euro banknotes had the word euro written in both Latin (Euro) and Greek (Ευρώ) letters; the Cyrillic spelling (Eвро) was added to the new Europa series of banknotes started in 2013 (see Linguistic issues concerning the euro).[citation needed]

Language-specific regulations

[edit]

Maltese

[edit]

Although Maltese is an official language, the Council set a transitional period of three years from 1 May 2004, during which the institutions were not obliged to draft all acts in Maltese.[24] It was agreed that the council could extend this transitional period by an additional year, but decided not to.[25] All new acts of the institutions were required to be adopted and published in Maltese from 30 April 2007.[citation needed]

Irish

[edit]

Irish previously had the status of "treaty language" before being upgraded to an official and working language in 2007. However, a temporary derogation was enforced until 1 January 2022.[26][27][28] The designation of Irish as a "treaty language" meant that only the treaties of the European Union were translated into Irish, whereas Legal Acts of the European Union adopted under the treaties (like Directives and Regulations) did not have to be.[citation needed]

When Ireland joined the EEC (now the EU) in 1973, Irish was accorded "Treaty Language" status. This meant that the founding EU Treaty was restated in Irish. Irish was also listed in that treaty and all subsequent EU treaties as one of the authentic languages of the treaties.[29] As a Treaty Language, Irish was an official procedural language of the European Court of Justice.[30] It was also possible to correspond in written Irish with the EU Institutions.[citation needed]

However, despite being the first official language of Ireland and having been accorded minority-language status in the Northern Ireland region of the United Kingdom, then an EU member state, Irish was not made an official working language of the EU until 1 January 2007. On that date an EU Council Regulation making Irish an official working language of the EU came into effect.[31] This followed a unanimous decision on 13 June 2005 by EU foreign ministers that Irish would be made the 21st official language of the EU.[32] However, a derogation previously stipulated that not all documents have to be translated into Irish as is the case with the other official languages.[31][33]

The regulation meant that legislation adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers is translated into Irish, and interpretation from Irish was available at European Parliament plenary sessions and some Council meetings. The cost of translation, interpretation, publication, and legal services involved in making Irish an official EU language was estimated at just under €3.5 million a year.[34] On 3 December 2015, a new regulation passed by the council had set a definitive schedule on the gradual reduction of the derogation of the Irish language. This regulation outlined a schedule of gradual reduction spread across five years starting from 2016. The derogation was ultimately revoked on 1 January 2022, making Irish a fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history.[35]

Irish is the only official language of the EU that is not the most widely spoken language in any member state.[citation needed] According to the 2006 Irish census figures, there are 1.66 million people in Ireland with some ability to speak Irish, out of a population of 4.6 million, though only 538,500 use Irish on a daily basis (counting those who use it mainly in the education system) and just over 72,000 use Irish as a daily language outside the education system.[36][original research?]

South-Slavic language status

[edit]

At the time of Croatia's accession to the EU, some diplomats and officials suggested that, rather than accepting the Croatian written standard as an official EU language, the EU should instead adopt a single unified literary form that would encompass several nearly-identical written standards of the same language, historically known as Serbo-Croatian, the official language of Yugoslavia until its disintegration and the division of the language among ethnic lines. In addition to Croatian, this would include the Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin written standards, all of them based in the same spoken dialect of Eastern Herzegovina, with the goal of reducing potential translation and interpretation costs if the other Western Balkan states eventually joined the EU as well.[37] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was cited as an example of an international body that had conducted business in such a unified standard.[37] In negotiations with Croatia, however, it was agreed that the Croatian standard would become a separate official EU language, as none of the other states at issue had yet been admitted to the EU.[37]

Regional, minority and other languages

[edit]

Some regional or minority languages spoken within the EU do not have official recognition at EU level.[38] Some of them may have some official status within the member state and count many more speakers than some of the lesser-used official languages. The official languages of EU are in bold.[clarification needed]

In the list,[clarification needed] language varieties classified as dialects of an official language by member countries are not included. However, many of these varieties may be viewed as separate languages: for instance, Scots (the Germanic language descended from Old English, not the Celtic language known as Scottish Gaelic) and several Romance languages spoken in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, such as Aragonese, Asturian, Mirandese, Lombard, Ligurian, Piedmontese, Venetian, Corsican, Neapolitan and Sicilian.[citation needed]

Languages of France

[edit]

The French constitution stipulates French as the sole language of France. Since the 2008 modifications, article 75-1 of the Constitution adds that "regional languages form part of the French heritage".[39]

Nevertheless, there exist a number of languages spoken by sizable minorities, such as Breton (a Celtic language), Basque, and several Romance languages such as Occitan, Catalan, Corsican and the various langues d'oïl (other than French), as well as Germanic languages spoken in Alsace-Lorraine (Central Franconian, High Franconian, Luxembourgish, and Alemannic) and French Flanders (Dutch).[clarification needed]

These languages enjoy no official status under the French state, and regions are not permitted to bestow any such status themselves.[citation needed][clarification needed]

Languages of Greece

[edit]

The official language of Greece is Greek, and recognized minority languages are Armenian, Ladino and Turkish. Nevertheless, there are several other languages in Greece, which lack any recognition. These are Albanian, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian (these last two usually being collectively known as "Vlach"), Romani and the Slavic varieties spoken in the country. Greece has been described as the only European Union member state that sticks to a "linguistic assimilationist ideology".[40]

Languages of Italy

[edit]

Italy's official language is Italian, although twelve additional languages (namely Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian) have been recognized as minority languages by the 1999 national Framework Law on the Country's historical linguistic minorities,[41] in accordance with the Article 6 of the Italian Constitution.[42] However, many languages other than Italian and the above-mentioned twelve are spoken across the country,[43] most of them being either Gallo-Italic or Italo-Dalmatian, which lack any sort of official recognition and protection.

Languages of Spain

[edit]

The Spanish governments have sought to give some official status in the EU for the languages of the autonomous communities of Spain, Catalan/Valencian, Galician and Basque. The 667th Council Meeting of the Council of the European Union in Luxembourg on 13 June 2005, decided to authorise limited use at EU level of languages recognised by member states other than the official working languages. The Council granted recognition to "languages other than the languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 whose status is recognised by the Constitution of a Member State on all or part of its territory or the use of which as a national language is authorised by law." The official use of such languages will be authorised on the basis of an administrative arrangement concluded between the council and the requesting member state.[32]

Although Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician are not nationwide official languages in Spain, as co-official languages in the respective regions—pursuant to Spanish constitution, among other documents—they are eligible to benefit from official use in EU institutions under the terms of 13 June 2005 resolution of the Council of the European Union. The Spanish government has assented to the provisions in respect of these languages.[citation needed]

The status of Catalan, spoken by over 9 million EU citizens (just over 1.8% of the total), has been the subject of particular 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).[44]

On 16 November 2005, the President Peter Straub of the Committee of the Regions signed an agreement with the Spanish Ambassador to the EU, Carlos Bastarreche [es], approving the use of Spanish regional languages in an EU institution for the first time in a meeting on that day, with interpretation provided by European Commission interpreters.[45][46][47]

On 3 July 2006, the European Parliament's Bureau approved a proposal by the Spanish State to allow citizens to address the European Parliament in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, two months after its initial rejection.[48][49]

On 30 November 2006, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, and the Spanish ambassador in the EU, Carlos Bastarreche, signed an agreement in Brussels to allow Spanish citizens to address complaints to the European Ombudsman in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, all three co-official languages in Spain.[50] According to the agreement, a translation body, which will be set up and financed by the Spanish government, will be responsible for translating complaints submitted in these languages. In turn, it will translate the Ombudsman's decisions from Spanish into the language of the complainant. Until such a body is established the agreement will not become effective.

Following the 2023 Spanish general election, the PSOE-led Spanish government sent a letter to the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, asking for Catalan, Basque, and Galician to be added to the current 24 official languages of the EU. This was done in exchange for the support of the Catalan separatist party Junts for Francina Armengol's candidacy for President of the Congress of Deputies. Without such support the PSOE would likely have been unable to form a new government and a second election would have been held in the same year.[51]

Galician in particular, not being itself a European Parliament official language, can be used and is in fact used by some European Parliament constituents as a spoken dialect of Portuguese due to its similarity with this language.[52]

Luxembourgish and Turkish

[edit]

Luxembourgish (Luxembourg) and Turkish (Cyprus) are the only two national languages that are not official languages of the EU. Neither Luxembourg nor Cyprus have yet used the provision of 13 June 2005 resolution to benefit from use in official EU institutions. On 26 February 2016 it was made public that Cyprus has asked to make Turkish an official EU language, in a “gesture” that could help reunification and improve EU–Turkey relations.[53] Already in 2004, it was planned that Turkish would become an official language if Cyprus reunited.[54] Turkish is also a recognized minority language in two EU member countries (Greece and Romania).[citation needed]

In September 2010, Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn declined a request of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) to make Luxembourgish an official language of the European Union citing financial reasons and also that German and French being already official languages would be sufficient for the needs of Luxembourg.[55]

Romani

[edit]

The Romani people, numbering over two million in the EU,[56] speak the Romani language (actually numerous different languages), which is not official in any EU member state or polity, except for being an official minority language of Sweden and Finland. Moreover, Romani mass media and educational institution presences are near-negligible.[citation needed]

Russian

[edit]

Though not an official language of the European Union, Russian is spoken[clarification needed] in all member states that were part of the Soviet Union (and before that the Russian Empire). Russian is the native language of about 1.6 million Baltic Russians residing in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as a sizeable community of about 3.5 million in Germany and as a major immigrant language elsewhere in the EU, e.g. in and around Paris. Russian is also understood by a majority of ethnic Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians born before c. 1980, since, as official language of the Soviet Union, it was a compulsory school subject in those countries that were part of the Soviet Union. To a lesser extent, this legacy also holds true among the older generation in parts of the EU that were formerly part of the Eastern bloc, such as the GDR.[citation needed]

In March 2010 fact-sheets in Russian produced by the EU executive's offices in Latvia were withdrawn, provoking criticism from Plaid Cymru MEP and European Free Alliance group President Jill Evans who called European Commission to continue to provide information in non-official EU languages and commented that "it's disappointing to hear that the EU is bowing to pressure to exclude Russian speakers in the Baltic in this way".[57]

Sami languages

[edit]

In Finland, the Sami languages Northern Sami (ca. 2,000 speakers), Skolt Sami (400) and Inari Sami (300) have limited local recognition in certain municipalities of Finnish Lapland. Furthermore, legislation specifically concerning the Sami must be translated to these languages. Bilingualism with Finnish is universal, though.[citation needed]

At least five different Sami languages are spoken in Sweden, but "Sami language" (undifferentiated) is recognised as an official minority language in Sweden, and is co-official with Swedish in four municipalities in Norrbotten County (Swedish Lapland). Most of Sami speakers speak Northern Sami (5,000–6,000 speakers), although there are ca. 1,000–2,000 Lule Sami speakers and 600 Southern Sami speakers. Also Ume Sámi and Pite Sámi are spoken in Sweden.[citation needed]

Latin

[edit]

For millennia, Latin served as a lingua franca for administrative, scholarly, religious, political, and other purposes in parts of the present-day European Union. After Athens and other Greek city-states of the 6th to 4th centuries BC, the first documented political entity historically verifiable in Europe was the Roman Republic, traditionally founded in 509 BC, the successor-state to the Etruscan city-state confederacies.[58] Latin as a lingua franca of Europe was rivalled only by Greek. It is serving as honourable and ceremonial language in some of the oldest European universities in the 21st century, and has operated as the official language of the Roman Catholic Church until today. Latin, along with Greek, was at the core of education in Europe from the schools of rhetoric of the Roman Republic in all of its provinces and territories, through the medieval trivium and quadrivium, through the humanists and the Renaissance, all the way to Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (just to name one example of thousands of scientific works written in this language), to the public schools of all European countries, where Latin (along with Greek) was at the core of their curricula. Latin served as the undisputed European lingua franca until the 19th century, when the cultures of vernacular languages and the "national languages" started to gain ground and claim status. Today, several institutions of the European Union use Latin in their logos and domain names instead of listing their names in all the official languages. For example, the European Court of Justice has its website at "curia.europa.eu".[59] The Court of Auditors uses Curia Rationum in its logo. The Council of the European Union has its website at "consilium.europa.eu" and its logo showing Consilium. The European Union itself has a Latin motto: "In varietate concordia". Under the European Company Regulation, companies can be incorporated as Societas Europaea (Latin for "European Company", often shortened to "SE" after the company's own proper name). Latin is one of the languages of IATE (the inter-institutional terminology database of the European Union).[citation needed]

Immigrant languages

[edit]

A wide variety of languages from other parts of the world are spoken by immigrant communities in EU countries. Turkish (which is also an official language of the EU member Cyprus) is spoken as a first language by an estimated 1% of the population in Belgium and the western part of Germany, and by 1% in the Netherlands. Other widely used migrant languages include Berber languages which are spoken by about 1% of the population of both the Netherlands and Belgium and by many Berber migrants in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Arabic is spoken in many EU countries mainly in its Maghrebi and Levantine varieties. Maghrebi Arabic is spoken by migrants in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Levantine Arabic is spoken by migrants in Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Greece. Languages from former Yugoslavia (Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Albanian, etc.) are spoken in many parts of the EU by migrants and refugees who have left the region as a result of the Yugoslav wars and unrest there.[citation needed]

There are large Chinese communities in France, Spain, Italy, and other countries. Old and recent Chinese migrants speak a number of Chinese varieties, in particular Cantonese and other southern Chinese varieties. However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening[clarification needed] of the People's Republic of China.[citation needed]

There are many Russian-speaking immigrants in Germany[60] and France.[citation needed]

Many immigrant communities in the EU have been in place for several generations now, and their members are bilingual, at ease both in the local language and in that of their community.[61]

Sign languages

[edit]

A wide variety of sign languages are used in the EU, with around 500,000 people using a sign language as their first language.[62] None of these languages are recognised as an official language of an EU member state, with the exception of Ireland passing the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 that granted it official status alongside Irish and English, and only three states (Austria,[63] Finland and Portugal) refer to sign languages in their constitution.[64]

Several NGOs exist which support signers, such as the European Union of the Deaf and the European Sign Language Centre. The European Commission has also supported some initiatives to produce digital technologies that can better support signers, such as Dicta-Sign and SignSpeak.[62]

The sign languages in use in the EU are more difficult to classify into language families than the spoken languages, because of language contact and creolization. Important families include the Swedish, French, and German sign language families.[citation needed]

Vietnamese

[edit]

Vietnamese is one of the 14 recognized minority languages in the Czech Republic.[a]

Esperanto

[edit]

Esperanto is a constructed language that is part of the educational system in several member states. In Hungary it is officially recognised by the Ministry of Education as a foreign language;[66] and examinations in Esperanto may be used to meet the requirements of knowledge of foreign languages needed to complete university or high school. Every year, since 2001, between 1000 and 3000 people have passed examinations in Esperanto, making up for a sum of more than 35,000 up to 2016; it is recognised by the Hungarian state.[67] The Hungarian census 2001 found 4575 Esperanto speakers in Hungary (4407 of them learned the language, for 168 of them it is a family or native language); in 2011 it found 8397 Esperanto speakers.[68] In 1990 there were only 2083 Esperanto speakers in Hungary following the census.[69]

Esperanto is not mentioned by the EU Commission as an EU language; the Commission mentions only official, indigenous regional and minority languages as well as languages of immigrants.[70] Following estimates there are approximately 100,000 Europeans sometimes using Esperanto (and several millions having learned Esperanto); the language has several thousand native speakers, some of them of the second or third generation.[71]

The European party Europe – Democracy – Esperanto seeks to establish the planned language as an official second language in the EU in order to make international communication more efficient and fair in economical and philosophical terms. They are based on the conclusions of the Grin Report,[72] which concluded that it would hypothetically allow savings to the EU of €25 billion a year (€54 for every citizen) and have other benefits. However, the EU Parliament has stated clearly that language education is the responsibility of member states.[22]

The European Esperanto Union also promotes Esperanto as the international auxiliary language of Europe.[73]


Knowledge

[edit]

The main official sources of information on the EU citizens' levels of language proficiency are the Special Eurobarometers no. 243 (February 2006; field work late 2005), no. 386 (2012), and no. 540 (2023).

Languages, by speakers as percentage of EU population as of October 2023[74]
Official
languages
First
language
Additional
language
Total
English 2% 47% 50%
German 19% 10% 29%
French 15% 11% 25%
Italian 13% 3% 16%
Polish 9% 0% 9%
Spanish 9% 7% 17%
Dutch 5% 1% 6%
Romanian 4% 0% 5%
Greek 3% 0% 3%
Hungarian 3% 0% 3%
Portuguese 3% 0% 3%
Czech 2% 1% 3%
Bulgarian 2% 0% 3%
Swedish 2% 1% 3%
Danish 1% 0% 3%
Finnish 1% 0% 1%
Croatian 1% 1% 1%
Lithuanian 1% 0% 1%
Slovak 1% 1% 2%
Slovenian 1% 0% 1%
Latvian 0% 0% 0%
Estonian 0% 0% 0%
Maltese 0% 0% 0%
Irish 0% 0% 0%
Non-official
languages
First
language
Additional
language
Total
Catalan (s) 1% 1% 3%
Russian 1% 3% 4%
Turkish 1% 0% 1%
Arabic 0% 0% 1%
Galician (s) 0% 0% 1%
Chinese 0% 0% 1%
Luxembourgish 0% 0% 0%
Albanian 0% 0% 0%
Low German 0% 0% 0%
Frisian 0% 0% 0%
Kurdish 0% 0% 0%
Basque 0% 0% 0%
Sámi 0% 0% 0%
Sardinian 0% 0% 0%
Ukrainian 0% 0% 0%
Yiddish 0% 0% 0%
Japanese 0% 0% 0%
Friulia 0% 0% 0%
Occitan 0% 0% 0%
Romany 0% 0% 0%
Serbian/Bosnian/Montenegrin 0% 0% 0%
Other 0% 0% 0%

According to the Special Eurobarometer no. 540, as of 2023, the five most spoken languages in the EU were English (50%), German (29%), French (25%), Italian (16%) and Spanish (17%). At 19% of the total number of speakers, German was the most widely spoken native language, followed by French (15%), Italian (13%) Polish (9%) and Spanish (9%). The knowledge of foreign languages varied considerably in the specific countries, as the table below shows. The most spoken second or foreign languages in the EU were English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. In the table, boxes coloured light blue mean that the language is an official language of the country, while the main language spoken in the country is coloured dark blue.

Knowledge of languages in EU27 (2023)[74]
Country English German French Spanish Italian Polish Russian
European Union
(total)
50% 29% 25% 17% 16% 9% 4%
Austria 59% 98% 11% 4% 9% 0% 1%
Belgium1 61% 18% 83% 10% 7% 1% 2%
Bulgaria 30% 5% 3% 3% 1% 0% 14%
Croatia 45% 15% 4% 1% 8% 0% 1%
Cyprus 80% 7% 9% 1% 3% 0% 5%
Czech Republic 43% 20% 5% 3% 2% 4% 15%
Denmark 90% 50% 11% 9% 1% 0% 0%
Estonia 59% 14% 2% 2% 1% 1% 74%2
Finland 82% 19% 4% 4% 2% 0% 4%
France 42% 6% 97% 14% 5% 0% 1%
Germany 66% 98% 16% 8% 4% 2% 4%
Greece 52% 7% 6% 2% 3% 0% 2%
Hungary 31% 13% 2% 2% 2% 0% 2%
Ireland 97% 7% 13% 7% 2% 3% 1%
Italy 34% 4% 10% 6% 97% 0% 1%
Latvia 55% 18% 3% 2% 1% 3% 91%3
Lithuania 45% 12% 3% 1% 1% 14% 66%
Luxembourg 71% 66% 94% 15% 10% 1% 1%
Malta 91% 4% 13% 4% 52% 0% 1%
Netherlands 95% 61% 27% 9% 1% 0% 0%
Poland 31% 5% 1% 1% 1% 97% 5%
Portugal 42% 1% 13% 9% 1% 0% 1%
Romania 27% 3% 7% 3% 3% 0% 1%
Slovakia 40% 21% 2% 2% 2% 2% 15%
Slovenia 62% 33% 2% 4% 13% 0% 2%
Spain 39% 3% 13% 97% 4% 0% 0%
Sweden 91% 25% 12% 10% 3% 1% 1%

1 39% of those who speak French are native speakers, for a total of 83%.
2 Includes 25% native speakers
3 Includes 28% native speakers

59% of EU citizens are able to hold a conversation in a language other than their native language, three percent higher than reported in 2012.[75] 28% are able to hold a conversation in at least two foreign languages, 11% are able to hold a conversation in at least three foreign languages, while 39% are only able to speak their native language.[citation needed]

English remains by far the most widely spoken foreign language throughout Europe. A total of 95% of students in the EU study English at secondary level[77] and 38% of EU citizens state that they have sufficient skills in English to have a conversation (excluding citizens of Ireland, an English-speaking country). A total of 28% of Europeans indicate that they know either French (14%) or German (14%), along with their native language. French is most commonly studied and used in southern Europe, especially in Mediterranean countries, in Germany, Portugal, Romania, the Benelux countries and Ireland. German, on the other hand, is commonly studied and used in the Benelux countries, in Scandinavia, and in the newer EU member states. Spanish is most commonly studied in France, Italy, Luxembourg, and Portugal. In 19 out of 29 countries polled, English is the most widely known language apart from the native language, this being particularly the case in Sweden (89%), Malta (88%); the Netherlands (87%); and Denmark (86%). A total of 77% of EU citizens believe that children should learn English. English was considered the number one language to learn in all countries where the research was conducted except for Ireland and Luxembourg. English, either as a native language or as a second/foreign language, is spoken by 44% of EU citizens, followed by German with 36% and French with 30%.[citation needed]

The EU enlargements since 1990 have largely favoured the position of German relative to French. The only exceptions are Romania, Cyprus and Malta.
Red: Countries where German is more known than French.
Blue: Countries where French is more known than German.
Darker colours: Native countries.
Figure: year of accession.
C: Candidate country.

With the enlargement of the European Union, the balance between French and German is slowly changing. More citizens in the new member states speak German (23% compared with 12% in the EU15) while fewer speak French or Spanish (3% and 1% respectively compared with 16% and 7% among the EU15 group). A notable exception is Romania, where 24% of the population speaks French as a foreign language compared to 6% who speak German as a foreign language. At the same time, the balance is being changed in the opposite direction by growth of the French-speaking population and decrease of the German-speaking population.[citation needed]

Language skills are unevenly distributed both over the geographical area of Europe and over sociodemographic groups. Reasonably good language competences are perceived in relatively small member states with several state languages, lesser used native languages or "language exchange" with neighbouring countries. This is the case in Luxembourg, where 92% speak at least two languages. Those who live in southern European countries or countries where one of the major European languages is a state language have a lower likelihood of speaking multiple foreign languages. Only 5% of Turks, 13% of Irish, 16% of Italians, 17% of Spaniards and 18% of Britons speak at least two languages apart from their native language.[citation needed]

Working languages

[edit]

European Commission

[edit]

While documents for and communication with citizens are in every official EU language as a right, day-to-day work in the European Commission is based around its three working languages: English, French, and German.[78] Of these, English and French are used the most often. The use of English vs. French depends greatly on the unit or directorate. Only a few of the commissioners use a language other than English or French as their working language. German is rarely used as a true working language in the Commission, and German media have called the dominance of English and French a discrimination against German (which is the most spoken mother tongue of the EU) and a violation of the regulations pertaining to the EU's working languages.[79] The German Bundestag has repeatedly called for German to receive an equal position in the Commission alongside English and French.[80] The language situation has also disappointed many in France,[81] and Kristalina Georgieva, who is from Bulgaria, gained a round of applause when she told the European Parliament she would learn French while in the Commission.[82]

Use of German has, however, been increasing in EU institutions, as has the number of people learning the language across Europe.[83]

European Parliament

[edit]

The European Parliament translates its proceedings into all official languages so that fellow MEPs can understand them better than if they had the delayed translation.[84] Committee meetings also often default to the language most understood by those attending instead of listening to the translation.[citation needed]

Court of Justice

[edit]

The working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union is French. The judges deliberate in French, pleadings and written legal submissions are translated into French, and the judgment is drafted in French.[85] The Advocates-General, by contrast, may work and draft their opinions in any official language, as they do not take part in any deliberations. These opinions are then translated into French for the benefit of the judges and their deliberations.[86]

European Central Bank

[edit]

The working language of the European Central Bank is English.[citation needed]

Policy

[edit]

The European Union's legal powers on legislative acts and other initiatives on language policy are based on the provisions of the Treaties of the European Union. In the EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, and the European Union does not have a common "language policy". Based on the principle of subsidiarity, European Union institutions play a supporting role in this field, promoting cooperation between the member states and promoting the European dimension in the member states' language policies, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the member states (Article 149.2).[87][88] The rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Community shall, without prejudice to the provisions contained in the Statute of the Court of Justice, be determined by the council, acting unanimously (Article 290). All languages, in which[word missing?] was originally drawn up or was translated due to enlargement, are legally equally authentic. Every citizen of the Union may write to any of the EU institutions or bodies in one of these languages and receive an answer in the same language (Article 24 TFEU).[citation needed]

In the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding since its inclusion in the Lisbon Treaty, the EU declares that it respects linguistic diversity (Article 22) and prohibits discrimination on grounds of language (Article 21). Respect for linguistic diversity is a fundamental value of the European Union, in the same way as respect for the person, openness towards other cultures, and tolerance and acceptance of other people.[citation needed]

Initiatives

[edit]
Interpretation booths in the debating chamber of the European Parliament (Brussels)

Beginning with the Lingua programme [fr] in 1990, the European Union invests more than €30 million a year (out of a €120 billion EU budget) promoting language learning through the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes in bursaries to enable language teachers to be trained abroad, placing foreign language assistants in schools, funding class exchanges to motivate pupils to learn languages, creating new language courses on CDs and the Internet, and projects that raise awareness of the benefits of language learning.[citation needed]

Through strategic studies, the Commission promotes debate, innovation, and the exchange of good practice. In addition, the mainstream actions of Community programmes which encourage mobility and transnational partnerships motivate participants to learn languages.[citation needed]

Youth exchanges, town twinning projects, and the European Voluntary Service also promote multilingualism. Since 1997, the Culture 2000 programme has financed the translation of around 2,000 literary works from and into European languages.

The new programmes proposed for implementation for the financial perspective 2007–2013 (Culture 2007, Youth in Action, and Lifelong Learning) will continue and develop this kind of support.[citation needed]

The EU used to provide the main financial support to the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages until 2010, a non-governmental organisation which represents the interests of the over 40 million citizens who belong to a regional and minority language community, and for the Mercator networks of universities active in research on lesser-used languages in Europe. Following a request from the European Parliament, the commission in 2004 launched a feasibility study on the possible creation of a new EU agency, the "European Agency for Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity." The study concludes that there are unmet needs in this field, and proposes two options: creating an agency or setting up a European network of "Language Diversity Centres." The Commission believes that a network would be the most appropriate next step and, where possible, should build on existing structures; it will examine the possibility of financing it on a multi-annual basis through the proposed Lifelong Learning programme. Another interesting step would be to translate important public websites, such as the one of the European Central Bank, or Frontex web site also, in at least one other language than English or French.[citation needed]

Although not an EU treaty, most EU member states have ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.[89]

To encourage language learning, the EU supported the Council of Europe initiatives for European Year of Languages 2001 and the annual celebration of European Day of Languages on 26 September.[citation needed]

To encourage the member states to cooperate and to disseminate best practice the Commission issued a Communication on 24 July 2003, on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: an Action Plan 2004–2006 and a Communication on 22 November 2005, on A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism.[citation needed]

From 22 November 2004, the European Commissioner for Education and Culture portfolio included an explicit reference to languages and became European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism with Ján Figeľ at the post. From 2007 until 2010, the European Commission had a special portfolio on languages, European Commissioner for Multilingualism. The post was held by Leonard Orban. Since 2010, the portfolio was merged with education and culture, again.[citation needed]

EU devotes a specialised subsite of its "Europa" portal to languages, the EUROPA Languages portal.[citation needed]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Citizens belonging to minorities, which traditionally and on long-term basis live within the territory of the Czech Republic, enjoy the right to use their language in communication with authorities and in front of the courts of law[65] The article 25 of the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms ensures right of the national and ethnic minorities for education and communication with authorities in their own language. Act No. 500/2004 Coll. (The Administrative Rule) in its paragraph 16 (4) (Procedural Language) ensures, that a citizen of the Czech Republic, who belongs to a national or an ethnic minority, which traditionally and on long-term basis lives within the territory of the Czech Republic, have right to address an administrative agency and proceed before it in the language of the minority. In the case that the administrative agency doesn't have an employee with knowledge of the language, the agency is bound to obtain a translator at the agency's own expense. According to Act No. 273/2001 (About The Rights of Members of Minorities) paragraph 9 (The right to use language of a national minority in dealing with authorities and in front of the courts of law) the same applies for the members of national minorities also in front of the courts of law.
  2. ^ Around 40% of Belgium's population are native French speakers.
  3. ^ 37.5% of Latvia's population[76] and about 30% of Estonia's population are native Russian speakers.

References

[edit]
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  3. ^ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:01958R0001-20130701
  4. ^ https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?docid=242402&doclang=EN
  5. ^ COM(2003)449: Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: an Action Plan 2004 - 2006
  6. ^ "EUROPA – Education and Training – Action Plan Promoting language learning and linguistic diversity". European Commission. Archived from the original on 18 April 2010.
  7. ^ European parliament has 24 official languages, but MEPs prefer English, theguardian 21 May 2014
  8. ^ English will remain the working language of the EU after Brexit, The Irish Times 18 July 2016
  9. ^ English will not be an official EU language after Brexit, says senior MEP, Politico Europe 27 June 2016
  10. ^ Britain is leaving the EU, but its language will stay, The Economist 13 May 2017
  11. ^ Forrest, Adam (10 June 2021). "El francés sustituirá al inglés como el "idioma de trabajo" de la Unión Europea". The Independent in Spanish (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 October 2021.
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  30. ^ Deirdre Fottrell, Bill Bowring – 1999 Minority and Group Rights in the New Millennium.
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  40. ^ Bessie Dendrinos. "Language issues and language policies in Greece" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 August 2021.
  41. ^ "Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche". Italian Parliament. 1999.
  42. ^ "Constitution of the Italian Republic" (PDF). Senato della Repubblica.
  43. ^ "Italy". Ethnologue.
  44. ^ OJ C19, 28 January 1991
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  46. ^ "EUROPA-Languages-News-Spanish regional languages used for the first time". Europa (web portal).
  47. ^ "Spanish regional languages are used for the first time in EU institutions: "it's a historic day for Europe", say Spanish regional Presidents" (Press release). European Union Committee of the Regions. 16 November 2005. Archived from the original on 18 July 2006.
  48. ^ "Mercator :: News". Ciemen.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
  49. ^ "Catalan government welcomes European Parliament language move". Barcelonareporter.com. Archived from the original on 9 July 2006.
  50. ^ "European Ombudsman Press Release No. 19/2006 30.11.2006". Europa (web portal).
  51. ^ "Sánchez's polyglot promise: Bringing Spain's other languages to Brussels". 18 August 2023.
  52. ^ "O Galego já é oficial na UE [GL/PT]". Associaçom Galega da Lingua. Archived from the original on 30 October 2004.
  53. ^ EU Observer, 26 February 2016, https://euobserver.com/institutional/132476
  54. ^ See article 8 in Proposal for an Act of Adaptation of the terms of Accession of the United Cyprus Republic to the European Union
  55. ^ "De l'usage de la langue luxembourgeoise dans le contexte européen : Une question parlementaire de Fernand Kartheiser - Europaforum Luxembourg - Septembre 2010".
  56. ^ "Ethnologue". Ethnologue.
  57. ^ "Russian speakers 'excluded' from EU brochures in Latvia". EurActiv.com. 17 March 2010. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  58. ^ Compare: Turfa, Jean MacIntosh (2012). "7: The Society of the Brontoscopic Calendar: 'The women and the slaves will carry out assassinations'". Divining the Etruscan World: The Brontoscopic Calendar and Religious Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 220. ISBN 9781107009073. Retrieved 30 August 2017. As Livy's tale of the would-be king of Veii at the fanum Voltumnae shows, most Etruscan statesmen by the fifth century regarded the installation of a king as a giant step backwards in civic affairs. [...] The implication is that most Etruscan states had evolved more open governments [...].
  59. ^ "CURIA". europa.eu.
  60. ^ "Russian MFA Spokesman Mikhail Kamynin Interview with RIA Novosti Regarding Upcoming Conference on Status of Russian Language Abroad (Moscow, May 28, 2007)". Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Greek Republic, Russian Centre of Science and Culture. Archived from the original on 27 February 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
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  65. ^ For the list of recognized minorities see National Minorities Policy of the Government of the Czech Republic, Belarusian and Vietnamese since 4 July 2013, see Česko má nové oficiální národnostní menšiny. Vietnamce a Bělorusy.
  66. ^ "Tájékoztatom, hogy a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Nyelvtudományi intézete 2004, január 6-ai ülésén döntést hozott arról, hogy az eszperantó elő idegen nyelvnek minősül. Erről a döntésről tájékoztattam az Eszperantó Szövetség elnökét, valamint a felsőoktatási intézmények vezetőit". eszperanto.hu. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  67. ^ See Esperanto teaching in Hungary, Esperanto statistics; revuo Esperanto, 12/2010, p. 246
  68. ^ The number should be higher, if one considers the number of about 35,000 Esperanto exams between 2001 and 2015.
  69. ^ "Hungarian Central Statistical Office – Census 2011, languages". ksh.hu. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  70. ^ See for instance "EU Languages and Language policy" or "European Day of Languages"
  71. ^ Harald Haarmann (2002, Kleines Lexikon der Sprachen. Von Albanisch bis Zulu. 2nd ed. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-49423-9. p. 115/117) speaks about several thousand people speaking Esperanto as native language, see Haarmann (Lexikon). Also The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, ed. R.E. Asher, Oxford: Pergamon, 1994 (vol. 3, pages 1143–1145).
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  74. ^ a b European Commission, Directorate-General for Communication (2024). Special Eurobarometer survey "Europeans and their languages". Publications Office. doi:10.2766/28257. ISBN 978-92-68-12045-3. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
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  76. ^ 2000 census results Archived 21 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine — choose "Results of Population Census Year 2000, in short" and "Iedzīvotāju dzimtā valoda un citu valodu prasme"(in Latvian)
  77. ^ Euobserver (27 September 2011). "News in Brief / English studied by 95% of EU students". EUobserver.
  78. ^ What are the working languages of the European Commission? Archived 5 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine, europa.eu, 2014.
  79. ^ "Sprache: Warum Deutsch in der EU diskriminiert wird - WELT". Die Welt. 25 February 2010.
  80. ^ "EU-Kommission soll Deutsch als Sprache nutzen: - WELT". Die Welt. 12 April 2006.
  81. ^ "Chirac upset by English address". BBC News. 24 March 2006.
  82. ^ Morris, Harvey (7 February 2010). "French language losing its cachet? Au contraire!". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022.
  83. ^ "We'll all be speaking German soon". 26 June 2020.
  84. ^ "Languages". european-union.europa.eu. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
  85. ^ Sharpston, Eleanor V. E. (29 March 2011), "Appendix 5: Written Evidence of Advocate General Sharpston", The Workload of the Court of Justice of the European Union, House of Lords European Union Committee, retrieved 27 August 2013
  86. ^ On the Linguistic Design of Multinational Courts—The French Capture, forthcoming in 14 INT’L J. CONST. L. (2016), MATHILDE COHEN
  87. ^ Treaty establishing the European Community (Consolidated version 2002), Articles 149 to 150
  88. ^ European Parliament Fact Sheets: 4.16.3. Language policy Archived 19 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, European Parliament website. Retrieved 3 February 2007.
  89. ^ "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages CETS No.: 148". Conventions.coe.int.

Bibliography

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Special Eurobarometers

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Further reading

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