EUROPEAN UNION

EUROPEAN UNION, short form EU. An association of European countries, until the end of 1994 twelve in number: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Irish Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Membership now also includes Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden. In 1993, the EU subsumed the European Community (EC), previously known as the European Economic Community (EEC), which came into being in 1967 through the merger of several earlier associations formed after the Second World War. Its headquarters is in Brussels in Belgium, its Parliament mainly in Strasbourg, northern France, with some central institutions in Luxembourg. Its official working languages are ENGLISH and FRENCH, and its official languages DANISH, DUTCH, English, Finnish, French, GERMAN, GREEK, ITALIAN, PORTUGUESE, SPANISH, and Swedish. All eleven are used in EC meetings with simultaneous translation as a matter of course. Official documents must be published in all the official languages. In the period 1982–90, 40m ECUs (European Currency Units) were provided for EUROTRA automatic translation. There are between 30 and 40 minority languages, depending on definition, some of them varieties of official languages (such as Alsatian German in France), some unique (such as Breton in France and Basque in France and Spain). All member countries save Portugal have regional minority languages (such as GAELIC, SCOTS, and WELSH in the UK). The European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages, set up in 1982 with its headquarters in DUBLIN, represents all such languages but not the ‘trans-European’ minority languages YIDDISH and ROMANY.

English is increasingly the LINGUA FRANCA of the EU. Representatives of smaller countries, such as Denmark and Greece, often give press conferences in English: ‘The Danes are keener to speak English even than the British … .The Spanish on the other hand tend to talk French. On political subjects both languages are used in discussions. The French are very concerned to protect their language. But in more technical sectors—telecommunications or research for example—it is overwhelmingly English, as the technical vocabulary has developed on a more global basis' ( Michael Berendt, The Times, 23 Oct. 1989). In Belgium, a country often disturbed by tensions between speakers of Flemish and French, English is a neutral medium. British television is widely watched along the north-western European coast, and in the Netherlands interviews in English on national television are often not translated. American TV is also widely available by satellite and cable.

While the aim of the Union is harmonization rather than homogenization, there is a strong EU-wide tendency towards greater use of English. Indeed, the results of any drive towards foreign-language learning may strengthen the already most prominent language: English is the first second language in all EU countries, including France.