Language questions
Communication in the EU - Introduction
"Europe builds roads, bridges and railways in order to bring people closer together. Now we have to strengthen contacts between people."
(Margot Wallström, EU-commissioner responding to a question about communication)
Communication and contact among people of different countries, cultures, and language groups is very important for the European Union. That helps improve our knowledge aboutone another, reduces xenophobia, and strengthens our sense of belonging to one common union. Communication among EU citizens across national boundaries is additionally a condition for being able to have common discussions and debates, i.e. the basis of a well functioning democracy. EU is evolving in many fields, and hopefully is moving toward more democracy and openness. To support that evolution it seems necessary that contact and communication between citizens of the union should become better and more frequent. E.g.: common magazines and television programs with information, news, discussions, and debates, would be very useful for increasing the number of supporters of the European project and to create a more democratic EU in the future.
Language diversity in the EU is a great asset and important basis for our cultural diversity, something we must surely protect. However, along with its wealth, the language diversity also presents an enormous challenge: How can the citizens of a union with twenty official languages (soon to be more) and more than twenty unofficial languages communicate accross borders in an equal and effective manner? This question is not simple, but one worthy of debate and exploration if we want to strengthen the relations between citizens of the EU in the future.
