The importance of language knowledge in the European Union

Kuthy, Erika

Keywords: Barcelona Declaration, Hague Recommendations, language learning, language knowledge, teaching of foreign languages

Europe and the world had its most tragic period in the 1930s-1940s. To benefit from the past, the politicians of the leading countries have come to the conclusion that the creation of a unified political-economic organisation would help cooperation between nations and would prevent the repetition of the same things. The idea of establishing a politically-economically unified European Community was first suggested by Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950. After that the process gained speed and, based on several forerunners, with the ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 the European Union was created, which now has 25 member states.

The cooperation of the 25 members raises several administrative, political, economic and linguistic problems. As the official language of each member is simultaneously the official language of the Union itself, all documents have to be translated into all languages and interpreters must be supplied at the meetings. These points are incorporated into the Barcelona Declaration and the Hague Recommendations. It means that at present the EU has 20 official languages. In practice: there are 20X19=380 directions of interpretation in the EU which can result in an enormous financial burden on the budget. The solution: to introduce a language which can be easily acquired by everybody to bridge the gaps. A living, natural language cannot meet these requirements as it could result in a lot of disputes and jealousy to determine, which national language should be the mediator. The introduction of an extinct or artificial language may seem a good idea although this initiative has not been feasible so far.

In conclusion, the result can only be the tedious task of language learning. The knowledge of foreign languages is an integrating force. Those who cannot speak a foreign language may suffer discrimination. In each member state the task of both public and higher education is to organise and ensure opportunities for learning foreign languages.

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