Languages & Culture Archives

The British Council will continue to do the work it has always done, despite Brexit, and its priorities in areas like Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East remain as important as ever, said the organisation’s CEO in a wide-ranging interview.

The Greek parliament yesterday (9 January) made the practice of Islamic sharia law in family disputes optional for the country's Muslim minority, changing a century-old legacy.

The French supreme court hasrejected a clause that imposed the use of French on public building sites, a predictable outcome under European public procurement law that forbids discriminating rules unless they are in the interest of workers’ safety. EURACTIV France reports.

The wife of a jailed Venezuelan opposition leader lashed out in the European Parliament against the "dictatorship" of the country's leftist president, which she said has imprisoned the whole nation.

If the Brexit negotiations do not secure the United Kingdom's participation in the hugely popular Erasmus programme, the effect on Wales "would be massive" in particular, according to the former EU official credited with helping get the scheme off the ground in 1987.

In a wide-ranging interview, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, whose country takes over the EU's  rotating six-month Presidency in January, discussed European policies, the upcoming Bulgarian Presidency, and  his contradictions with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ukraine's Ambassador to the EU, Mykola Tochytskyi, discussed his country’s EU agenda, the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit, the sensitive relations with Russia and the new language law which has antagonised Hungary.

The European Commission’s regular meeting with religious leaders on Tuesday (7 November) coincided with the 100th anniversary of the October Bolshevik revolution, probably the single event that left the greatest mark on the 20th Century, and one of whose major crimes was the crackdown on religion.

Prominent Austrian politician Peter Pilz on Saturday (4 November) quit parliament and stepped down as head of his newly formed anti-establishment party over sexual harassment allegations.

The European Parliament backed by a large majority the EU budget for 2018 on Wednesday (25 October), earning praise from NGOs for increasing funds for humanitarian and development aid. But the EU Council said it cannot accept all the MEPS' amendments.

It is high time to stop politicizing the new Ukrainian Law on education, writes Ukraine’s Ambassador to the EU, Mykola Tochytskyi.

The United States and its ally Israel said yesterday (12 October) they were pulling out of the UN's culture and education body in a move that underlined Washington's drift away from international institutions.

Small armies of teachers, social workers and police officers are swarming across Bulgaria to carry out a Herculean task -- convince tens of thousands of Roma parents to send their children to school.

Hungary will ask the European Union to review its ties with Ukraine over Kyiv's decision to scrap teaching subjects in languages of its ethnic minorities, including in Hungarian, from its secondary school curriculum.

Soldiers shot at least eight people dead in Cameroon's restive anglophone belt at the weekend as a separatist group made a symbolic declaration of independence.

New data released this week show that Muslims in Europe face discrimination in all areas of life. We need to start shifting our perspective and promote inclusive narratives and practices with regard to Muslims' presence in Europe. Too often, they are seen as a ‘problem to manage’, writes Julie Pascoët.

Macedonia hailed a "big step" towards resolving a quarter-century-old dispute with neighbour Greece on Tuesday (5 September) over its name that has seen it blocked from NATO and European Union membership talks.

Yerzhan Ashikbayev, Kazakhstan's deputy foreign minister, spoke to EURACTIV.com about nuclear disarmament, relations with the big powers and his country’s example when it comes to multiculturalism.

Ask the average European what the world's biggest landlocked country is, or was the last to leave the Soviet Union, and chances are they will not know it's Kazakhstan.

Three members of Germany's Bundestag have asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to make sure EU institutions use the German language more.

Refugee children could be permanently separated from their families unless the government includes family reunification in post-Brexit immigration law, the head of Unicef UK has warned. EURACTIV's partner The Guardian reports.

High-kicking dancers are enthralling full houses again at the Moulin Rouge and art lovers are swarming the Louvre as Paris enjoys a tourism revival after plummeting numbers brought on by terror attacks.

Belgium's national dish, the deep fried potato sticks that much of the English-speaking world gallingly calls "French fries", has been saved.