Languages & Culture Archives

Russia unleashed a blistering war of words against Britain at the UN Security Council yesterday (5 April), deflecting accusations of poisoning a former double agent in England with denials, "Alice in Wonderland" and Russian literature.

There is still one week left to collect signatures for the European Citizen’s Initiative, which aims to introduce common EU standards to protect national minority groups. EURACTIV Poland’s media partner “Gazeta Wyborcza” reports.

A Council of Europe project to help refugees to have their qualifications recognised abroad was extended to include more countries on Wednesday (28 March).

French used to be the recognised language of international diplomacy even though the British Empire was much larger and more dominant. French held out, more or less, until after World War Two, when the global geopolitical balance shifted and the US took over, helped by Hollywood and rock 'n' roll.

The English language is too dominant in Brussels, especially with Britain soon to exit the European Union, French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday (20 March) as he vowed to fight for a wider use of French in EU institutions and abroad.

The design of Crocs, an opinion-dividing American line of footwear, is no longer valid in the European Union, after the bloc’s top court backed a decision by the EU’s intellectual property office to nullify it, citing a lack of “novelty”.

The European Parliament is exploring ways to convert the younger generation's online engagement into higher turnout in the upcoming elections, write Ramón Luis Valcárcel and Sylvie Guillaume.

The European Council decided on Thursday (15 February) to approve a treaty on access to published works for visually impaired people, opening the door for the EU to ratify the text in the summer.

Luxembourg's national language Letzebuergesch is making a comeback and fighting for official European Union recognition.

One of the Erasmus student exchange programme's latest enrollee's is Miguel Castillo, an 80-year-old native of Valencia who will next week go to the Italian city of Verona as part of his university studies.

There is a thirst for Europe in Central Asia and much more should be done to answer this interest under existing and new inter-cultural programs, writes Nargis Kassenova.

The European Union has called on Cameroon to ensure its security forces use "proportional force" in the country's restive English-speaking west.

Europe has grown together in the decades following World War Two. One thing - central at the start and nowadays labelled as stale - was of particular importance back then: town twinnings. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The issue of media freedom in Croatia has earned the EU's newest member the dubious honour of being visited twice in as many years by a team of press freedom organisation representatives. Upon return, they said the situation has improved but serious concerns remain.

Hungary will not facilitate the holding of a Ukraine-NATO summit at defence minister level, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday (19 January) after a meeting with Vasyl Brenzovych, the head of the Society of Hungarian culture in Zakarpattia (a region in southwestern Ukraine), according to Radio Liberty.

Internet platforms have helped the internet to become more multilingual, and especially less widely spoken languages like Luxembourgish, Viviane Reding told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

Researchers and officials working on internet governance have urged EU institutions to help expand the use of internationalised domain names, which contain letters from alphabets including Cyrillic or Greek, or accented letters like in the word “café”.

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.