English will not be an official EU language after Brexit, says senior MEP
Source: Politico
Danuta Hübner, the head of the European Parliaments Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO), warned Monday that English will not be one of the European Unions official languages after Britain leaves the EU.
English is one of the EUs 24 official languages because the U.K. identified it as its own official language, Hübner said. But as soon as Britain completes the process to leave the EU, English could lose its status.
We have a regulation
where every EU country has the right to notify one official language, Hübner said. The Irish have notified Gaelic, and the Maltese have notified Maltese, so you have only the U.K. notifying English.
If we dont have the U.K., we dont have English, Hübner said.
Read more: http://www.politico.eu/article/english-will-not-be-an-official-eu-language-after-brexit-senior-mep/
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,154 posts)I think Ireland would ask for an exception to this.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)How many Scots are fluent in Scottish Gaelic?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,154 posts)but there won't be guaranteed continuity of Scotland being in the EU, while Ireland (and, I suspect, Malta, but I don't know) really would need translation into English all the time, whatever happens.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)And, as for Maltese, I'm surprised it's even considered as a proper language.
I thought it was just a sort of Mediterranean Creole. I suppose most Maltese speak a bit, but English is the other official language of the island, AFAIK.
geardaddy
(24,924 posts)Maybe 10%. The Gaeltacht is shrinking.
Welsh has more first and second language speakers than any other Celtic language, but it's still a small percentage of the whole population of Wales, roughly 20% at higher estimates.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)More in northen and central Wales, but some in the south, too.
Much more rare to hear Irish Gaelic, except out on the wild west coast in rural areas.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)than most people here in the US!
If you go to the Netherlands, and speak Dutch, but not perfectly, they start speaking English to you. Many of their ads are in Dutlish. It's sort a mix of Dutch and English, and is VERY strange!
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)the highly educated. From the streetcar driver to the baggage handler at the airport, they put monolingual Americans to shame.
It's due to the fact that English has been declared the second official language of the country, and that most English-language TV shows and films are viewed in the original version with subtitles. It's just too expensive for such a small country to dub everything into Dutch.
They hear English spoken and speak it themselves on a daily basis. It's an integral part of their lives.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)My girlfriend's 84 year old mother in Wageningen speaks English to me, and I speak Dutch (what little I can) to her.
Tot Ziens!
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Everyone I knew from there learned English and German in grade school. Most knew a fourth language.
forest444
(5,902 posts)pkdu
(3,977 posts)Quite Ironic now...bunch of English ( OK , Geordie ) Brickies working in Germany...funny as heck.
Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)geardaddy
(24,924 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)TeamPooka
(24,156 posts)msongs
(67,193 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)NATO and the EU are two different things.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)IronLionZion
(45,259 posts)ToxMarz
(2,154 posts)So what. Can Americans only see things through their own eyes, even things that don't concern them.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)ToxMarz
(2,154 posts)They won't be negotiating anything with the US in a language other than English. It doesn't matter whether it is an "official language"
IronLionZion
(45,259 posts)JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)ToxMarz
(2,154 posts)JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)I suppose it would be a relatively secure encryption.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)even in France. Half the people in the EU either speak English as their native language or as their second language. Whether it is called and official language or not, English will remain the de facto common language. It's a good thing too. Otherwise, mono-lingual American tourists would be screwed.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)We were in a smaller area of Montpelier and it was decades ago, and they were so excited to find an native English speaker that my pigeon French went down the tubes.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)tonyt53
(5,737 posts)Regardless of what people in some countries might want to think, English is the language of international business, just like the US dollar is the base currency of international business. That comes with being the largest economy in the world. Even China knows it, plus they use the US dollar as the basis for their currency value. English isn't going anywhere for business.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)"Official" or not, it will continue to be the most widely spoken among Europeans.
Kaleva
(36,146 posts)When units from various European nations work together, they speak English
diligent sleeper
(12 posts)It may be a formality, but it's also quite childish.
https://therulingclassobserver.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/of-labels-the-doors-of-perception/
still_one
(91,962 posts)saying, so I have to turn on the closed caption feature on my TV.
mia
(8,356 posts)"By far the most widely spoken and fastest spreading world language today is English, which has over 840 million primary and secondary users worldwide. It is also estimated to have as many as 700 million "foreign" learners of the language, including anywhere between 200 and 350 million learners/users in China alone,[3] at varying levels of study and proficiency, though this number is difficult to accurately assess.[4] English is also increasing becoming the dominant language of scientific research and papers worldwide, having even outpaced national languages in Western European countries, including France, where a recent study showed that English has massively displaced French as the language of scientific research in "hard" as well as in applied sciences.[5]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)FBaggins
(26,697 posts)It isn't as though they're going to take English off of their highway signs and mass transit (etc). That isn't there because the UK is in the EU... it's because English is the most-spoken language in the EU and because it facilitates the largest amount of tourism.
IronLionZion
(45,259 posts)Wankers
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)vkkv
(3,384 posts)JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)First ones vetoing that noise will be Hübner's fellow Poles (I just looked her up, since the name sounds German) who may not know no Slovenian, Slovak, or in most cases even French.
Seriously, of all the counter-productive silliness that could be brought up at this moment...
Oh, also, this is funny, from Hübner's Wiki page:
She received her MSc in Economics, Warsaw School of Economics (Central School of Planning and Statistics) in 1971, her PhD in economics, Warsaw School of Economics 1974 Visiting scholar at the Centre for European Studies at the University of Sussex in 1974, and her post-doctoral degree in international trade relations, Warsaw School of Economics in 1980. She was a 19881990 Fulbright scholar, University of California, Berkeley and received an honorary Degree in Laws of the Sussex University in 2005 .
She can start, as an international economist and all.
geardaddy
(24,924 posts)Sorry, this just stuck out. I'm sure you meant "any"
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)geardaddy
(24,924 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)PSPS
(13,512 posts)Eventually, people will see the EU for what is really is, not what it's promoted to be.
The GOP has been "punishing" the US for 8 years now for having the gall to put a democrat (especially a black democrat) in the white house. The same forces are at work now in the EU.
RAFisher
(466 posts)Irish is the 3rd most used language in Ireland behind english and polish. The latter due to immigration. It would be better for the EU to keep english. But I doubt Ireland wants to give up Irish nor does Malta want to give up Maltese. It's would deprive both of nationalism by removing their historic language.
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)This is why we can't have nice things.
Night Watchman
(743 posts)(Unless Scotland withdraws from the UK and gains EU membership.)
muriel_volestrangler
(101,154 posts)in preference to Gaelic and Maltese. Those countries chose those as the one extra language they can add, because they knew the UK added English, and that gave them the chance for a bit of national pride. The estimate above is that perhaps only 10% of the Irish are fluent in Gaelic. The rest need translations into English, no Gaelic.
Response to brooklynite (Original post)
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