Multilingualism, a conundrum for the EU

In the columns of the Portuguese daily, Edite Estrela, the European Member of Parliament, welcomes the appearance on the European agenda of the debate on multilingualism. "As of 2007, there will be a European commissioner for multilingualism. Today, the linguistic rainbow of the Union is made up of twenty official languages ... . This diversity constitutes a central value of the European construction, despite the unsolvable difficulties that engenders. ... Facing such a linguistic labyrinth, numerous voices are making themselves heard in favour of a neutral language, Esperanto or English. If one can be bilingual it is difficult to be rendered an orphan of a mother tongue. Linguistic policy is a delicate theme that touches sensitive domains: identity and emotions. This signifies that it is easier to reach an agreement on a single currency than on linguistic choices."

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