Tag: languages

Protesters wielding hammers have torn down bilingual signs in Serbian Cyrillic that were installed on official buildings in the Croat city of Vukovar, in a spate of tension recalling the 1990s Yugoslav war.

EXCLUSIVE / A EurActiv survey of French EU professionals in Brussels, published ahead of Bastille Day, shows that an overwhelming 60% of respondents believe their country’s influence in Europe has declined since the financial and economic crisis swept the continent in 2008.

With the decline of French language in EU institutions now accepted by most as irreversible, French lawmakers and officials have started pushing a more assertive approach, based on the promotion of multilingualism and influence rather than language issues only.

INTERVIEW / Just as the EU legislates to protect migrating birds and wildlife habitats, it should also protect its 120 or so endangered languages, argues François Alfonsi, a Corsican MEP who has prepared a parliamentary report that could name and shame European wrongdoers.

Although the English language plays a central role in today's international business environment, workers in many countries are still struggling with basic communication skills, according to a new report.

Internationalised domain names (IDNs), which are seen as an essential building block for creating a multilingual internet, are growing in number, according to a new report.

The European Commission has tried to respond to grumbling in the French press about the preferential use of English in EU institutions, saying it is doing its best to maintain multilingualism in the face of budget constraints.

Thirty years on, Margaret Thatcher's' education policies have had unexpected consequences on the European Parliament's translation and interpretation services. Miguel Angel Martinez Martinez, the Spanish MEP in charge of the Assembly's multilingualism policy, explains why in an interview with EurActiv.

Although the English language continues to dominate the Internet, the rise of global economic powerhouses like China and Russia has seen a surge in what used to be considered second-tier languages, a Brussels conference heard last week. Meanwhile, the UN predicts that half of the world's 6,000 languages will become extinct by the end of the century.

Pupils across the EU are overwhelmingly studying English as a second language, 82% of these at primary and lower-secondary level, and 95% at upper-secondary level, a Eurostat survey published  yesterday (26 September) on the occasion of the tenth European Day of Languages.

Companies that learn the language of the countries they do business with will thrive in the future, making it easier to build trust relationships and helping them to understand how people think, according to Martin Hope, head of an EU project called 'Language Rich Europe'. He spoke to EurActiv in an interview.

European political leaders are paying tribute to Jorge Semprún, a Spanish prize-winning and politically committed novelist, a French Resistance fighter, a concentration camp survivor and former culture minister in post-Franco Spain, who passed away late on Tuesday at the age of 87.

The European Union should make its diverse cultural content more accessible to people around the world via increased investments in cultural and, in particular, digital diplomacy, Dutch liberal MEP Marietje Schaake told EurActiv in an interview.

As the thirteenth Francophonie summit opens in Montreux, Switzerland, new statistics reveal an increasing dominance of African countries, whose demographic boom could end up tilting the organisation’s balance. EurActiv spoke to Abdou Diouf, secretary-general of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). 

The European Commission yesterday (12 October) launched a new drive to encourage more universities to offer courses for aspiring translators amid fears of a succession crisis in the EU institutions' languages department..

Ahead of this year's European Languages Day on Sunday, the European Commission will today (24 September) stress the importance of language skills in improving the employability of Europeans and the competitiveness of Europe's small businesses. However, doubts persist as to whether the Commission itself is practising what it preaches. 

The European Commission has joined other international organisations in calling for language learning in schools to be properly funded and career opportunities for professionals like interpreters and translators to be better promoted. 

Ninety-five percent of participants in the EU's 'Youth in Action' programme improve their language skills, while two-thirds (66%) believe the experience boosted their job prospects, according to a survey of the scheme's effectiveness published last week. 

People in Europe facing criminal proceedings outside of their country of residence moved one step closer to receiving translation and interpretation in their own language yesterday (8 April), after MEPs gave their backing to draft EU legislation on the issue.

Action at grassroots rather than EU level holds the key to ensuring the survival of minority languages such as Galician, heard a major conference at the European Parliament last week, with participants calling for an end to oppressive legislation like Slovakia's language law. 

The EU this week (8-9 December) launched a European Master's in Translation (EMT) network to provide high-quality education for translation students in view of nurturing a competent workforce for its institutions.

The European Commission should use legal changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty to protect the rights of linguistic minorities in the European Union, Latvian MEP Tatjana Zdanoka has urged.

Pupils from across the EU are today (24 November) competing for EU-wide translation prizes in a competition designed to promote the profession among young people in Europe.

The European Commission is seeking to kill off excessive legal speak by setting up a hotline that will give officials advice on how to write more clearly, it emerged at a conference in Brussels yesterday (17 November).