Magazine / Society / Multilingualism / Background | 16/04/2008

A variety of languages in Europe – opportunity or obstacle?

Since 1957, the number of official languages in the EU has risen from four to 23. An EU commissioner for multilingualism has been in place since January 2007. The variety of languages provides many opportunities, but also many obstacles.

The EU directive relating to the official languages

Since the beginning of the European unification process in 1957, the number of official languages has risen from four to 23. In a regulation passed by the parliament in 1958, it was determined that the official languages of the member states would be equally recognised and are to be used as the official and working languages of European institutions.

Leonard Orban, EU Commissioner for Multilingualism
Photo: AP

Nothing has changed in relation to this regulation up to now. As a consequence, with each new wave of expansion, new languages are making an entrance into the institutions and today, the EU has the largest translation service in the world. Every EU citizen can make contact with all the institutions in one of the official languages. He also has the right to receive a response in the same language. Thus, the principle of multilingualism also appears on a communication level with EU citizens in the institutions.

The EU is conscious of the challenge that multilingualism brings. An EU commissioner for multilingualism has been in place since January 2007. Language policies are necessary in multilingual states in order to prevent conflicts or simply to solve these. Examples in Switzerland show that strategies, which aim to regulate in detail the rights of each individual language and grant the same rights to all languages as far as possible, are particularly successful. Of course, the EU is not a state. However, the EU can, with conscious handling and the promotion of different solutions for multilingualism, be successful. Clear language regulations in the EU, which can be different depending on communication levels, must create basic conditions for an effective working atmosphere. Moreover, they should guarantee recognition for all languages of the member states and promote open contact with EU citizens who would like to contact institutions in their mother tongue.

Multilingualism in the EU institutions in practice

Multilingualism does not have to end up a total jumble of languages. A variety of languages does not mean that every EU citizen and employee should insist on his mother tongue in every situation. Special language abilities may and must be required in the selection process of employees recruited by EU institutions. After all, institutions can communicate with each other very well on an administrative level in very few working languages which is actually the case in practice. Theoretically, multilingualism has not been a reality on all levels for a long time.

The Members of Parliament selected by the citizens will represent the citizens of their constituency, exclusively, on the basis of their competencies, not on the basis of their language abilities. After all, one can hardly require them to be master of several languages. The multilingualism often practised in parliament by democratic and populist bodies should remain intact, provided there are Members of Parliament for whom communicating in a foreign language is a great necessity.

Learning a foreign language is undoubtedly important in this social hierarchy. Not only in order to be find a common tool for communication, but also to get to know the culture and concept behind each language. Language is much more than simply a tool. It is obvious that those negotiating partners in cross-cultural meetings and those finding compromises in international forums, who know and understand the concepts, are far more successful than those who rely on language purely as a tool.

Perhaps this is exactly the reason why artificial languages like Esperanto could not be adopted as a Lingua Franca in Europe. Artificial languages are purely communication tools behind which there is no identity. These languages lack the current every day life and culture behind the concept of the language which stimulates many people into learning languages and makes the language accessible and comprehensible. Europe and its citizens are multilingual. Thus, it is also true that the EU, with its institutionalised language varieties, reflects the cultural heritage of its citizens and their identity.

Multilingual EU citizens – a basis for European identity?

With the various language options and the need for translations in all 23 EU official languages (theoretically 506 language combinations are possible) critics see a barrier to effective communication on an EU level. The fact that this has not been the case in reality for a long time on all communication and work levels has already been mentioned. Over and above that, the question remains whether multilingualism is an obstacle for developing a European identity and therefore a European nation. It remains to be seen whether one Lingua Franca or several smaller Lingua Francas which should make working on an EU level easier, could be helpful in this area as a Lingua Franca amongst the citizens which will develop a European identity and nation.

The expert group set up to look at the topic of multilingualism by the commission in 2006, came to the opinion in their final report that multilingualism is not to blame for the lack of a European nation and a public European opinion. Rather, on the one hand the institutions and bodies are not in a position to use one language which is understood by all citizens. On the other hand, public opinion has always been formed on a national level up to now. The reason for this is, for instance, is that there are no European newspapers or television channels which report throughout Europe on the political agenda of the EU and who address a European as opposed to National audience. In addition, professor and EU expert Timothy Garton Ash said in the Guardian in October 2007, something to the effect that, the problem in the EU is still the lack of a European nation. To create a collective European sense of community and at the same time to speak several languages is the greatest European challenge. Leonard Orban, Commissioner for Multilingualism is convinced that linguistic variety can also promote integration in Europe. Like the socio-linguists and linguists who look into the relationship between language and society, he sees languages as the key to the creation of integrated communities. Only in places where people are prepared to learn their neighbour's language and speak to citizens in a different language can integration work and succeed.

With a future generation of EU citizens who have a better chance of learning several languages and at school, university, when training or at work gather experiences in a foreign country, it is perhaps easier to produce a generation who consider themselves "European”. Nonetheless, we all have our mother tongue which shapes us like the culture in which we grow up in and to which a certain language belongs. This variety constitutes the opulence of Europe and is a part of our European identity.

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