The English language now completely dominates in EU schools

The most-studied language in the EU originates from a country that is no longer in the EU

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

Slightly inconvenient for the French, n’est-ce pas?

Tuesday last week was the EU’s “European Day of Languages”. It must therefore have been difficult for them to publish the reality – that English is the No.1 language taught in secondary schools across the EU, by a very long way. Almost 97% of all pupils study it, as they revealed in the latest announcement.

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English is of course spoken in Ireland, where it is one of two languages. It is also used in Malta.

This annual event – held since 2001 - is intended “to promote Europe's linguistic and cultural diversity and to encourage lifelong language learning for better cultural understanding.” Below we show the reality today.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Most popular language learnt in EU schools

English : 96.8%
Others : 3.2%

[Source : EU Commission (Eurostat), 26 Sept 2023.]

Learning English in schools

The latest data from the EU shows that in 2021, English was the most studied foreign language at the secondary school level and vocational level in the EU, with 96.8% and 78.6% of students learning it, respectively.

In terms of general education, Spanish ranked second, followed by French, German, and Italian. Russian was the second language of non-EU origin most commonly learned in the EU, especially in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria.

Learning English in vocational studies

In vocational education, English once again came first. The German language came in a long way behind in second place, followed by French, Spanish and Russian. In the latest data, Russian was mostly learned in Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

The tower of EU Babel

Here is how the EU’s official languages have been added to over the years since the EEC was first established in 1957.

1958: Dutch, French, German, Italian
1973: Danish, English
1981: Greek
1986: Portuguese, Spanish
1995: Finnish, Swedish
2004: Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian
2007: Bulgarian, Irish, Romanian
2013: Croatian

Multilingualism is enshrined in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights: EU nationals have the right to use any of the 24 official languages to communicate with the EU institutions, and the institutions must reply in the same language. Meetings of the European Council and the Council of the European Union are interpreted into all official languages. MEPs have the right to use any official language when speaking in the EU Parliament.

English remains an official EU language, despite the United Kingdom having left the European Union. It remains an official and working language of the EU institutions as long as it is listed as such in Regulation No 1.

Observations

Whatever happened to “the language of diplomacy”?

Many years ago, the French managed to get their language recognised as “the language of diplomacy”.

When we first started researching the EU it was not uncommon to read announcements from the EU Commission which were only available in French. Now this is a rarity and only seems to happen when the Commission prefers to “bury” some bad news.

The reality is that the English language now dominates the EU, since the accession of so many countries who value English over French. It is easy to gloss over this but it is another sign of the ‘soft power’ Brexit Britain continues to have.

Cynics will point to the USA as the reason for the popularity of the English language in Europe. We would simply ask them: “Where did the Americans get their language?”

And for those who don’t travel a lot and who don’t know, a British accent when speaking English remains a sign of culture and education in many places – in the EU and especially in the US.

We must get reports like this out there

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[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 05 Oct 2023

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Reader Comments 18

1. Sparky , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 07:14:

A legacy of the British Empire which you may not realise no longer exists.
.
In Netherlands recently, the English spoken had a distinct American accent.
.
This issue should be raised through parliament or through your solicitor. Anyway, I’m off to a hotel, where I’ll be visiting the restaurant to choose from the menu, might have a salad, or soup or even a soufflé. Anyway, bon voyage, will leave you to work out which words here are of French origin.

2. Gazzablack , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 07:46:

1, sparkless
A failure of the French Empire.which you may not realise STILL exists.
If your in Bordeaux sparky, don't have the sardines, you'd be at risk of getting botulism.
.
But yes, there are many words of French origin in the English language, Richard the Lionheart spoke not a word of English.
Of course most of these words originated from a time before France as a country existed, at least not as it does now.
.
You'll also find words of Norse, German, Indian and Arabic origin in the English language, but we've never legislated in parliament to ban them.
.
Returning to Empire
Britain dismantled it's Empire of it's own accord
France is struggling to hold on to it's
And the EU is trying to build one.

3. LuxuryBalloon , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 08:06:

Great to see Brexit is making all the EUers now having to learn English as a second language. Our teenagers will be grateful that they don’t have to learn any other foreign languages.

4. terence patrick hewett , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 08:20:

@Sparky
No-one thinks about the British Empire from one year to the next: not the first empire in the Americas or the second worldwide empire, except socialists like you, who seem obsessed with it. When you start being honest about your motives, maybe people will take you seriously, and stop laughing at you.

5. RW52 , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 09:17:

Pity we don't teach English here bro..

6. terence patrick hewett , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 09:25:

@RW52
Yes, it seems you need some lessons.

7. David , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 09:27:

The UN (with 193 member countries) has just 6 official languages:- English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese.
The EU with 27 member countries has 24 official languages - four times as many official langiuages as the UN!
All 24 languages are designated as "working" languages and it seems all regulations are translated into all the 24 officlal langiages,
However, only three - Engliah, French and German - designated as "procedural" languages, are in wide general use.
English has been the most widely spoken language in the world for a long time and the situation in the EU reflects that fact.
English was adopted as the universal lamguage of avation in the 1950s because of course a universal language was needed
for safety reasons and ease of communication and it was recognised that English was by far the most widely spoken language in the world.
If the EU wished to streamline its bureaucracy and save money, it would do well to just adopt English as its one and only official langiage, but of course the French would never allow this.

8. Sparky , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 09:33:

2 G. "Britain dismantled its Empire of its own accord". No it didn't. The Uk was unable to hold onto the Empire following the aftermath of WWII. And Brexit will likely result in the break up of the United Kingdom with unification of Ireland.

9. Catherine , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 09:47:

This year's EU Day of Languages was quite funny - the various Commissioners each trundled out fancy X-Twitter posts proclaiming the day, in their respective language. It's funny because the EU PR system went into over-drive to produce cliche slogans in each EU language, after last year's effort - a brochure only available in English.

10. Gazzablack , Thursday, October 05, 2023, 11:35:

8, s
Yes it did
Other than India there were no countries agitating to leave the British Empire
Other than the USA there were no major wars of independence.
Contrast that with the French in Vietnam, Morocco and Algeria where millions died fighting French rule.
.
Brexit makes the break up of the UK less likely, not more.
Unlike the EU which is proving to be a fractious entity.
They're not a happy family, what with pile ons to the likes on to Poland and Hungary, or the way that France and Germany are now at each others throats.
Austria repeatedly vetoes Romanian accession to the Schengen zone, how's that for togetherness?
Or how about Germany refusing to accept migrants from Italy, while at the same time financing the NGO's that ferry them across the Med?

18 comments, page 1 of 2

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