English in the EU is a difficult linguistic dominance to face

They are not completely gone. Time Brexit Sounded on January 31, 2020, but according to the latest figures, Britain still has 267 members in the European Parliament, 79 in the Council and 730 in the Commission. When 2,000 of the 56,000 officers and contractors arrived at the time, this was the promise of former commission chairman Jean-Claude Juncker. UK.

However, if their number has already halved, the English language is everywhere. Baptismal statement “Linguistic Diversity and the French Language in Europe” Submitted to Quai d’Orsay on October 20, presents the scale of this fact. Two months before the rotating chairmanship of the councilEuropean union, Aims to rebalance the French language in the name of the principle multilingualism recognized by Paris Union law. While Spain, Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic have comparable demands, France may find itself allies in this war.

Read. In the corridors of the EU, the French still echo

The task was not easy as the applications gradually took root after various enhancements of 1995, 2004 and 2007. However, all large companies have their headquarters in the French-speaking territory. At the European Commission, in Brussels, the French collapse is no longer proven. In 1999, 34% of documents were initially in French. Twenty years later, the rate has dropped to 3.7%.

26 suggestions to change the game

In the Council of Europe, 2% of executive literature in 2018 was in the Moliere language. In 2019, with 11.7% of documents in French as the source language, the European Parliament is slightly better opposed. “The court is the only language other than English, the only institution in which French is a strong reality in this matter.”, The report states. Based on Luxembourg, the latter provides the applicant with a choice of language for the case, and all documents are then translated into French, the language of discussion.

The report is now in the hands of Clement Beyonc, Secretary of State for European Affairs, and Jean-Baptiste Lemoine, in charge of La Francophone. Christian Legvesne, an expert at the Scientific Poe International Research Center (CERI) who led the team to this task, warns about the signal being sent to the public and makes the multilingual issue a citizenship issue. “Presenting in Brussels the fear of a small English-speaking elite being misled by his own language is the whole game of populism.”, He insists.

Discussion Sheet 26 offers game-changing suggestions. This, among other things, supports the requirement of two foreign languages ​​for entrance examinations for the European Civil Service, and the creation of at least 50% of the original documents in one of the EU’s official languages ​​other than English. , I.e. German and French.

Reducing the gap between citizens

To measure linguistic diversity, an annual report should be introducedBenefit “Provide factual elements, in the model proposed by the UN today”, Defends Christian Legvesne, who warned of budget cuts that could be affected by interpretation and translation.