Language questions
Communication in the EU - Today
Today a relatively small part of the EU citizens often have contact with their fellow EU members from other countries. Plus there are not many community newspapers and television programs for the whole Union. Certainly there are many reasons for that, one of which relates to the language questions. Concerning languages for trans-border communication among the EU citizens, mainly English is a big help today. The EU Commission made a goal that everyone in the EU learn two languages besides their mother tongue, but is that goal actually realistic? "Multilingual people in a multilingual environment" per se is a very positive vision and good for contact and communication among EU citizens, but at the same time we must remembe that absolutely not everyone has the ability or interest to learn several foreign languages.
Three levels of communication in the EU
One could say that there are three levels of commications in the EU:
- Communication among EU members and EU citizens (e.g. Europe Direct)
- Indirect communication between EU citizens (for example, through common magazines, television and radio)
- Direct communication between EU citizens (for example via the Internet, during travel and at conferences)
Concerning "Level 1" there is already a relatively good solution, i.e. that all official information exist in all official languages, and that everyone can use one of the offical languages for questions, etc. Concerning "Level 2" and "Level 3" there are several models worth discussing and researching. (See the following page.)
