multilingualism

The European Language Cloud, or how to enable a multilingual Europe

Europe’s linguistic diversity is a cultural and social asset, but modern language infrastructure is needed to truly unite Europe in its diversity, write Andrejs Vasi?jevs and Rihards Kalni?š.

Clearing the hurdle of multilingualism

Only four percent of online spending by Europeans is currently done through cross-border purchases, largely due to segmented national language markets, argues Jochen Hummel.

A truly multilingual capital for the European Union

To meet Brussels’s exceptional linguistic challenge, the 'Marnix Plan' wants to mobilise Brussels’s diverse linguistic competence into an exciting collaborative project, writes Philippe Van Parijs.

Multilingualism in the Commission: Do as I say, not as I do

The European Commission, which drafts legislation which governs the lives of European citizens, works overwhelmingly in English. However a language is not simply a neutral conduit for information and there are ways of making the EU’s administration more multilingual and representative of its citizens, argues Michel Soubies.

Europe’s linguistic plurality: gem or stumbling stone?

Irish is set to become the 21st official language of the EU in 2007. Are there boundaries to the number of idioms the European Union can cope with? asks Gabriel von Toggenburg in this article published by café babel.  

Are you speaking my language?

The Maltese start learning a foreign language aged 5, Finnish schools teach up to 4 different foreign languages, and 80% of Danes are fluent in another tongue. Yet if multilingualism is on the rise in the EU, English is more than ever Europe's only lingua franca, writes Lindsey Evans in this article published by café babel.