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. The working language of the European Central Bank is English. 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. Since the 2008 modifications, article 75-1 of the Constitution adds that "regional languages form part of the French heritage".[34]. This new regulation outlines an actual schedule of gradual reduction spread across five years starting from 2016. This can be a tricky challenge for those wanting to pick up Russian as a foreign language, but it doesn’t hinder the millions of individuals that claim it as their mother tongue. Why are more and more people travelling alone and how can you benefit from the experience? [2] One language (Irish) previously had the lower status of "treaty language" before being upgraded to an official and working language in 2007, although it has been temporarily derogated as a working language until 2022 due to difficulty in finding qualified translators and interpreters. This is the case in Luxembourg, where 92% speak at least two languages. The judges deliberate in French, pleadings and written legal submissions are translated into French, and the judgment is drafted in French. [54], A wide variety of sign languages are used in the EU, with around 500,000 people using a sign language as their first language. We rank the Top 10. 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. All of these languages and cultures make Europe an amazing and unique place to visit. 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. Though not an official language of the European Union, Russian is widely spoken in all member states that were part of the Soviet Union (and before that the Russian Empire). Plurilingualism has been identified in numerous Recommendations of the Council of Europe as the principle and the aim of language education policies, and is . In Hungary it is officially recognised by the Ministry of Education as a foreign language;[58] and examinations in Esperanto may be used to meet the requirements of knowledge of foreign languages needed to complete university or high school. Le Parcours LEA-Europe est l’un des plus anciens cursus intégrésd’Europe. ", https://www.politico.eu/article/we-will-all-be-speaking-german-soon-language-brussels/?utm_campaign=Brussel%20Inside&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter, "Appendix 5: Written Evidence of Advocate General Sharpston", Consolidated version of the Treaty establishing the European Community, Articles 149 to 150, European Parliament Fact Sheets: 4.16.3. 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. Things you might hear on the street: 1. Romance languages are spoken in western and southern European regions; they include French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. [31], Due to similarities between Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin, there were some unofficial proposals to accept only one hybrid language as an official EU language as opposed to four separate ones (as in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) in order to reduce translation costs. [76], The German language is, however, on the rise within both the EU-27, as in the higher echelons.[77]. English, the global lingua franca has 400 million native speakers worldwide, with around 70 million living of those in Europe. The EU is home to over 60 indigenous regional or minority languages, spoken by some 40 million people. [30], Irish is the only official language of the EU that is not the most widely spoken language in any member state. The EU has 24 official languages, of which three (English, French and German) have the higher status of "procedural" languages[1] of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working languages). was originally drawn up or was translated due to enlargement, are legally equally authentic. It is the official language of France (of course), as well as a co-official language of Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. 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. So, if you’re looking to learn a new language with relative ease, why not try Spanish or French? The Sámi languages are in the same family as Finnish. Don't wait until it's too late! Russian, German, French, Italian, and English are the official languages of many European countries. 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. You might be surprised. Old and recent Chinese migrants speak a number of Chinese varieties, in particular Cantonese and other southern Chinese varieties. 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. 1 This does not refer to the total population of the countries.2 40% of those who speak French are native speakers, for a total of 85%.3 Includes about 30% native speakers4 Includes more than 30% native speakers. This leaves Catalan speakers without access to EU institutions in their mother tongue. 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 Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis (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. English may not have the most native speakers in Europe, but given its global importance, it’s the most widely spoken. It’s the official language of Germany, Austria, Belgium and it’s one of four official languages in Switzerland. 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. On the Linguistic Design of Multinational Courts—The French Capture, forthcoming in 14 INT’L J. CONST. It’s possible to look at European languages as belonging to two major groupings: Indo-European, which includes Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Slavic and the Romance languages (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian). It’s no wonder that tourism in 2017 was at an all-time high! That said, French’s global reach is even … "Sprache: Warum Deutsch in der EU diskriminiert wird - WELT", "EU-Kommission soll Deutsch als Sprache nutzen: - WELT", "French language losing its cachet? But many of these smaller minority languages are on the verge of dying out. Non-Indo-European, which includes the Uralic languages (e.g., Finnic and Finno-Ugric) and Basque. This is exactly what the following map (based on data by Eurostat) shows: Do you like the map? 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%). If EU institutions have sufficient available translation capacity, and if no other Council regulations state otherwise, the derogation completely ends by January 2022. EU Language Law, Groningen: Europa Law Publishing, This page was last edited on 28 March 2021, at 10:01. Spanish is most commonly studied in France, Italy, Luxembourg, and Portugal. 2003. When you want to experience the authentic Italian way of life on your travels, then learning Italian is a must! Harald Haarmann (2002, Kleines Lexikon der Sprachen. Many European countries that speak English do so as their second language, throughout the continent, a large percentage of the population can speak two, three and sometimes even four languages, for example, language learning app Babbel found this to be the case in one of the smallest countries in Europe, Luxembourg! Here we break down the 13 most useful phrases for traveling around Europe, and translate them into the six most common European languages. Perhaps a surprise for many individuals, Russian tops this list as the most spoken language in Europe with 120 million native speakers on the continent! Sharing with attribution helps me create more maps. 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. This article presents an overview of European Union (EU) statistics related to self-reported foreign language skills. English remains by far the most widely spoken foreign language throughout Europe. All languages, in which[word missing?] French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. 95% of students in the EU study English at secondary level[71] 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). [36] However, many other languages other than Italian and the above-mentioned twelve are spoken across the country,[37] most of them being either Gallo-Italic or Italo-Dalmatian. It is the official language of France (of course), as well as a co-official language of Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. 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." [62] 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. This will strengthen Ukraine's position in the international arena, as well as promote the long-term use of the Ukrainian language as mandatory in EU countries. The 69 million Italian native speakers in Europe are experts on la dolce vita. 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. : 148", Ukrainian can become the official language of the European Union, - the language ombudsman Kremin, "Approaches to fair linguistic communication", "Managing multilingualism in the European Union: language policy evaluation for the European Parliament", EU Language Year 2001: Celebrating diversity but with a hangover, Harmony or Cacophony: The Global Language System, Eurostat: Foreign language learning statistics (Jan. 2016), European Commission > Education and Training > Policy Areas > Languages, European Commission Directorate-General for Translation (DGT), European Commission Directorate-General for Interpretation (former SCIC), European Union interinstitutional style guide, Most Europeans can speak multiple languages. In Europe alone, it is considered the first language of not only Francebut also Southern Belgium, Western Switzerland and Monaco. Since 1997, the Culture 2000 programme has financed the translation of around 2,000 literary works from and into European languages. 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. So all of these descriptors are what we mean when we speak about Europe. In total, 22 million Europeans speak Dutch as their mother tongue, meaning that around 5% of the European population is a Dutch native speaker. The EU asserts that it is in favour of linguistic diversity. As a Babbel subscriber you’ll enjoy a 10% discount on any Intrepid trip departing before December 31, 2018. Neither Luxembourg nor Cyprus have yet used the provision of 13 June 2005 resolution to benefit from use in official EU institutions. Latin is one of the languages of IATE (the inter-institutional terminology database of the European Union). 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). 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. [45] 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. Thea writes about those things that she herself loves to read. With all of those countries combined, approximately 95 million people in Europe speak German as their first language. Spanish’s prestige grows even more when leaving Europe: 20 countries have Spanish declared as an official language and over 480 million individuals are Spanish native speakers throughout the globe, making it the second most widely-spoken language in the world. Beck. Official Languages of the European Union To be an official language of the European Union, the language must be both an official and a working language within a member state. Luxembourgish is the national language and the official language alongside German and French. When you combine the number of immigrants living in Europe and the number of second-hand English speakers, you’ll have no problem getting around Europe with English. trip departing before December 31, 2018. Surprisingly, there are over 150 different languages spoken in this small continent. 28% of Europeans indicate that they know either French (14%) or German (14%), along with their native language. [citation needed]. Europe can be a tricky thing to define: According to the Ancient Greeks, Europa was the beautiful princess abducted by Zeus and taken to the island of Crete. Those unfamiliar with Europe may be surprised to know that Germany also has a large population of Turkish speakers — more than 2 million people, in fact! Russian is also understood by a majority of ethnic Latvians, Estonians, and Lithuanians born before c. 1980, since, as official language of the Soviet Union, it was a compulsory school subject in those countries during the Soviet era. Latin as a lingua franca of Europe was rivalled only by Greek. This is particularly interesting because while most languages in Europe use the Latin alphabet, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet instead. Collectively, almost 10% of the European population speaks Polish as a first, second or third language. Italian is the official language of Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, and Croatia. 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. EU devotes a specialised subsite of its "Europa" portal to languages, the EUROPA Languages portal. [55] 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 two states (Finland and Portugal) refer to sign languages in their constitution. Widespread introduction of English, longer courses In western Europe the teaching of English has become the general rule, and all pupils now learn English. [23] As a Treaty Language, Irish was an official procedural language of the European Court of Justice. Some 94% of the total population of European are native speakers of an Indo-European language. From 2007 until 2010, the European Commission had a special portfolio on languages, European Commissioner for Multilingualism. These languages enjoy no official status under the French state and regions are not permitted to bestow any such status themselves. [22] All new acts of the institutions were required to be adopted and published in Maltese from 30 April 2007. Armenian speakers are found in the Paris area and the Rhone corridor linking Valence and Marseilles. Vietnamese is one of the 14 recognized minority languages in the Czech Republic. Most official EU languages are written in the Latin script. 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. Since 2010, the portfolio was merged with education and culture, again. Répondre à ces difficultés tout en faisant évoluer ce cursus, l’un des plus attractifs de la filière LEA, pour lui donner plus de visibilité encore et augmenter ainsi les chances de nos étudiants sur le marché du travail européen et mondial a … (By the way, did you know that Spanish is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn?). This meant that the founding EU Treaty was restated in Irish. Members of the European Parliament have the right to use any official language when speaking in Parliament. 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. Only a small part is in Europe, but still, it is one of the Indo-European languages,... German. 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%. It is also the most closely related to Latin and is the language of ancient Rome. Ukraine is actually the largest country by area in Europe (when one excludes France’s overseas territories and the asian continental portion of Russia). [63], 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. The European policy objective of a trilingual population (national language, English, another language) is already met by the majority of the population in Luxembourg (84%), the Netherlands (77%), Slovenia (67%), Malta (59%), Denmark (58%), Latvia (54%), Lithuania (52%) and Estonia (52%). Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle and Stefan Wolff. Languages from former Yugoslavia (Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Albanian, etc.) 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. 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."