Languages & Culture Archives

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.

Macedonia rejected suggestions on Wednesday (18 July) it could end a row with Greece over its name by adopting an unwieldy acronym instead, saying it was as alien as the "Klingon" language in Star Trek.

A Europe of peace among nations has been established. Europe’s younger generations have little consciousness of a Europe at war. For today’s youth, Europe is a land of opportunity, a land, not of peace and security, but of jobs and prosperity.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday (11 July) upheld a Belgian ban on wearing the full-face niqab veil in public, calling the restriction "necessary in a democratic society".

In his response to a EURACTIV interview about Hungary’s NGO law, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács suggested that the Venice Commission approves of Hungary’s new NGO law. This is not the case, writes Heather Grabbe.

As the Erasmus programme celebrates its 30th anniversary, Education Commissioner Tibor Navracsics told EFE that the scheme “increases the possibilities for young people to enter the labour market” and that it is “one of the greatest achievements of the European Union”.

Grace and Sunday Otoide's house is the last one standing on Bata Road in Benin City, southern Nigeria. All the neighbours have left and the retired couple hope to do the same.

International cultural relations have an enormous and untapped potential within the current global context, in which freedom of expression, human rights and mutual cooperation are under threat, writes Luca Jahier.

Fake news is now the buzz word across Europe and the wider world. But how do we fight it? Nicolas Vanderbiest and Gary Machado warn that censorship is not the solution.