Current Issues In Language Planning
Polity Editors: Robert B. Kaplan (University of Southern California), Richard B. Baldauf Jr. (University of Queensland) and Nkonko Kamwangamalu (Howard University)Bob and Dick are also editors of the book series Language Policy and Planning
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Volume: 2 Number: 4 Page: 311–360
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The European Union, its Institutions and its Languages: Some Language Political Observations
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T.J.M. van Els
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The present 15 member states of the European Union have acknowledged 11 languages as the 'official and working-languages' for use within the organisation. In principle these languages are fully equal. The
future expansion with new member states may bring the number of 'official and working-languages' to over 20. It is expected that institutional communication within the European Union – which is not
without problems under the present circumstances – will become more and more laborious with each additional language. These circumstances raise a major question for the European Union – whether
to consider the restriction of the number of official and working-languages. This monograph puts forward linguistic insights that may be pertinent both to reconsidering the desirability and tenability of
the principle of plurilinguistic equality and to the day-to-day practice of multilingual institutional communication. Central to the discussion are: (1) a number of 'myths' surrounding the phenomenon of
language; (2) domains of language use; (3) quality of (multilingual) communication; and (4) the handicaps experienced by natives and non-natives in multilingual communicative settings.
© Multilingual Matters 2001
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