France’s vain struggle against English domination within European institutions

Letter from Brussels

France did not disarm. Although English is imposed orally and in writing at all levels of European institutions, Emmanuel Macron, like his predecessors at Elysee Palace, continues to fight for the Moliere language, which has not disappeared from social forums.

In the first half of 2022, just weeks before the French presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), the government is preparing for a new offensive. In a press release dated October 22, a statement was issued after the submission “Linguistic Diversity and the French Language in Europe”, The announcement was made by Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Peon and his French-speaking counterpart, Jean-Baptiste Lemoine. “Multi-Year Action Plan” To speak multilingualism in Brussels.

There is something strange about this fight, and it seems so lost. “The place of the English language in European institutions is paramount, even dominant”, Write the authors of the report who worked under the guidance of Christian Lexne, Professor of Political Science at Science Po Paris. Some statistics allow us to measure the extent to which the other 23 official languages ​​of the EU have actually disappeared from the social landscape. The French, though better opposed than the others, are no exception.

Therefore, in the Commission that prepared the draft orders, in 2019, “3.7% of the documents sent for translation were French as the source language, 85.5% for English”, The report states. Twenty years ago, 34% of them were written in French before being translated. On the Council (representing member states), it’s even worse: in 2018, 95% of the characters were originally in English and 2% in French … The European Parliament has strongly opposed it, but the decline has not diminished. Inevitable. In 2019, only 11.7% of documents were written in French.

“Victor Hugo will be very disappointed”

In Fran மிகவும்ois, the smallest of these territories, the EU Court is an exception: there is only one language for discussion, and that is French. Discussions are usually held to see if it would be better to introduce another one that is in English, but Paris remains unique until now. This will not go unnoticed by the Luxembourg court: this situation arises, as Christian Legvesnew’s report points out. “It’s a hassle to recruit.

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