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brooklynite

(93,865 posts)
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 03:04 PM Jun 2016

English will not be an official EU language after Brexit, says senior MEP

Source: Politico

Danuta Hübner, the head of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO), warned Monday that English will not be one of the European Union’s official languages after Britain leaves the EU.

English is one of the EU’s 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 don’t have the U.K., we don’t have English,” Hübner said.

Read more: http://www.politico.eu/article/english-will-not-be-an-official-eu-language-after-brexit-senior-mep/

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English will not be an official EU language after Brexit, says senior MEP (Original Post) brooklynite Jun 2016 OP
Kinda getting silly. Brits would not care if they are not part of the group. yeoman6987 Jun 2016 #1
I think more Irish are fluent in English than in Gaelic muriel_volestrangler Jun 2016 #7
Obviously, the same will hold for Scotland, if and when they make the move. Surya Gayatri Jun 2016 #18
Barely none. Scotland would definitely want English as an official language muriel_volestrangler Jun 2016 #23
What percentage of the Irish are fluent in Irish Gaelic? 10 or 20%? Surya Gayatri Jun 2016 #33
I don't think 20% of the Irish population speaks Irish as an everyday language. geardaddy Jun 2016 #37
Thanks for the info. Yes, I remember hearing Welsh in the streets, shops and public transport. Surya Gayatri Jun 2016 #42
Funny as it seems, the Dutch speak better English RoccoR5955 Jun 2016 #19
You can say that again. Much better, and with very little accent. And, that's EVERYBODY, not just Surya Gayatri Jun 2016 #35
I know what you mean. RoccoR5955 Jun 2016 #49
I used to work for a Dutch company... awoke_in_2003 Jun 2016 #50
Auf Wiedersehen, sweetheart. forest444 Jun 2016 #2
English version: Auf Weidersehen Pet pkdu Jun 2016 #52
Why do they hate America? Renew Deal Jun 2016 #3
Because of our Free Dumbs! n/t RoccoR5955 Jun 2016 #20
Don't worry. The EU will replace it with SCOTTISH! DetlefK Jun 2016 #4
Scots or Gaelic? geardaddy Jun 2016 #38
Whatever groundskeeper Willie on the "Simpsons" was speaking. DetlefK Jun 2016 #44
the hits just keep on coming. nt TeamPooka Jun 2016 #5
ok fine, who will liberate France next time then? msongs Jun 2016 #6
What is the relevance of that? jberryhill Jun 2016 #11
Ugh ? TubbersUK Jun 2016 #12
What pray tell does WWII have to do with Britain's leaving the 28-country EU? Surya Gayatri Jun 2016 #17
Germany of course IronLionZion Jun 2016 #34
Probably China, Russia, India and Japan won't have English as an official language either ToxMarz Jun 2016 #8
In commerce and banking, they will. WinkyDink Jun 2016 #24
And so will the EU. They will be negotiating everything with the US and England even after BREXIT ToxMarz Jun 2016 #28
India does IronLionZion Jun 2016 #25
What language do you imagine they speak to each other? JackRiddler Jun 2016 #43
Gaelic? ToxMarz Jun 2016 #45
Russia, China, India and Japan? JackRiddler Jun 2016 #46
English is the common language of Europe, sulphurdunn Jun 2016 #9
Memories...of my trip to France after 6 weeks of French lessons. libdem4life Jun 2016 #51
Clearly Gaelic is more important in the EU than English. n/t PoliticAverse Jun 2016 #10
Maybe not, but English is the international language of MONEY. That isn't changing. tonyt53 Jun 2016 #13
And of science skepticscott Jun 2016 #15
And of the military Kaleva Jun 2016 #32
Eh diligent sleeper Jun 2016 #14
I don't know. When I watch British mysteries or movies, I can't always understand what they are still_one Jun 2016 #16
Seriously? mia Jun 2016 #21
Yeah, right. Until the United States, Saudi Arabia, and China tell Brussels it will be. WinkyDink Jun 2016 #22
I doubt that it will make any difference at all FBaggins Jun 2016 #26
Do you speak English? IronLionZion Jun 2016 #27
Funny and clever sulphurdunn Jun 2016 #56
Good luck with that E.U.. nt vkkv Jun 2016 #29
Yeah, that's going to work. JackRiddler Jun 2016 #30
"not know no Slovenian, Slovak, or in most cases even French. " geardaddy Jun 2016 #39
I ain't going to be lectured on no English idiom. JackRiddler Jun 2016 #41
LOL geardaddy Jun 2016 #48
Pretty stupid given that Ireland is still in the EU and they speak English. Odin2005 Jun 2016 #31
LOL. This must be the much-promised "punishment" for England's voters not "voting the right way." PSPS Jun 2016 #36
Malta or Ireland would probably change their EU language RAFisher Jun 2016 #40
Tribalism Yavin4 Jun 2016 #47
Why Should it Be? Night Watchman Jun 2016 #53
As the article and people in this thread, say, because Irish and Maltese people use English muriel_volestrangler Jun 2016 #54
Message auto-removed Name removed Jun 2016 #55

muriel_volestrangler

(101,154 posts)
7. I think more Irish are fluent in English than in Gaelic
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 03:26 PM
Jun 2016

I think Ireland would ask for an exception to this.

 

Surya Gayatri

(15,445 posts)
18. Obviously, the same will hold for Scotland, if and when they make the move.
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:10 PM
Jun 2016

How many Scots are fluent in Scottish Gaelic?

muriel_volestrangler

(101,154 posts)
23. Barely none. Scotland would definitely want English as an official language
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:22 PM
Jun 2016

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)
33. What percentage of the Irish are fluent in Irish Gaelic? 10 or 20%?
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:12 PM
Jun 2016

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)
37. I don't think 20% of the Irish population speaks Irish as an everyday language.
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:36 PM
Jun 2016

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)
42. Thanks for the info. Yes, I remember hearing Welsh in the streets, shops and public transport.
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:47 PM
Jun 2016

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)
19. Funny as it seems, the Dutch speak better English
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:13 PM
Jun 2016

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)
35. You can say that again. Much better, and with very little accent. And, that's EVERYBODY, not just
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:21 PM
Jun 2016

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)
49. I know what you mean.
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 11:20 PM
Jun 2016

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)
50. I used to work for a Dutch company...
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 11:26 PM
Jun 2016

Everyone I knew from there learned English and German in grade school. Most knew a fourth language.

pkdu

(3,977 posts)
52. English version: Auf Weidersehen Pet
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 11:59 PM
Jun 2016



Quite Ironic now...bunch of English ( OK , Geordie ) Brickies working in Germany...funny as heck.

ToxMarz

(2,154 posts)
8. Probably China, Russia, India and Japan won't have English as an official language either
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 03:29 PM
Jun 2016

So what. Can Americans only see things through their own eyes, even things that don't concern them.

ToxMarz

(2,154 posts)
28. And so will the EU. They will be negotiating everything with the US and England even after BREXIT
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:35 PM
Jun 2016

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"

 

sulphurdunn

(6,891 posts)
9. English is the common language of Europe,
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 03:37 PM
Jun 2016

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)
51. Memories...of my trip to France after 6 weeks of French lessons.
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 11:43 PM
Jun 2016

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.

 

tonyt53

(5,737 posts)
13. Maybe not, but English is the international language of MONEY. That isn't changing.
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 03:49 PM
Jun 2016

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.

still_one

(91,962 posts)
16. I don't know. When I watch British mysteries or movies, I can't always understand what they are
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 03:58 PM
Jun 2016

saying, so I have to turn on the closed caption feature on my TV.

mia

(8,356 posts)
21. Seriously?
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:17 PM
Jun 2016

"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

FBaggins

(26,697 posts)
26. I doubt that it will make any difference at all
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:27 PM
Jun 2016

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.

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
30. Yeah, that's going to work.
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:40 PM
Jun 2016

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 1988–1990 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)
39. "not know no Slovenian, Slovak, or in most cases even French. "
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:40 PM
Jun 2016

Sorry, this just stuck out. I'm sure you meant "any"

PSPS

(13,512 posts)
36. LOL. This must be the much-promised "punishment" for England's voters not "voting the right way."
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:22 PM
Jun 2016

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)
40. Malta or Ireland would probably change their EU language
Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:46 PM
Jun 2016

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.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,154 posts)
54. As the article and people in this thread, say, because Irish and Maltese people use English
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 03:53 AM
Jun 2016

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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