EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
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Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#2It should, but as recently as April last year a French Ambassador decided that English wasn't good enough for him:
https://www.politico.eu/article/english-only-try-au-revoir-f...
Petty squabbles such as these diminish the EU.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#3This doesn't really make sense.
American English which they propose adopting is removes more of the European roots of words.
For example removing the 'U' from words like Colour.
Ireland is also an English speaking country in the EU.
And I don't know how much of the sentiment of "Let's Americanise!" Would be popular.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#4It should, but as recently as April last year a French Ambassador decided that English wasn't good enough for him: https://www.politico.eu/article/english-only-try-au-revoir-f... Petty squabbles such as these diminish the EU.
Pettiness aside, I guess this is the same kind of response you'd give to someone who complains about OSS lacking a certain feature: Write a patch and make a PR—to the European English language repository.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#5It should, but as recently as April last year a French Ambassador decided that English wasn't good enough for him: https://www.politico.eu/article/english-only-try-au-revoir-f... Petty squabbles such as these diminish the EU.
Of course it'd be the French.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#6> the rest of the EU will be freed of the British veto and able to get as integrated as it wishes
Anyone who thinks that EU skepticism is exclusive to the Brits is in for a nasty nasty surprise.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#7> It will rid the French or the Germans of the temptation try to make their language the dominant one in the post-Brexit EU
It really won't, especially the French.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#8Pick a language, any language, but adopt it as official. It won't happen though. Germany, France, Spain, Italy and even Belgium are all way too proud. I am, for instance, a big fan of the Flemish language and the German language, but it is just not practical to keep them if you want to promote a united EU. But being Dutch I am for cooperation/trade; many people do not think like that and think their language and ways are vastly superior and should be adopted instead.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#9It should, but as recently as April last year a French Ambassador decided that English wasn't good enough for him: https://www.politico.eu/article/english-only-try-au-revoir-f... Petty squabbles such as these diminish the EU.
> French Ambassador decided that English wasn't good enough for him
You left out one important word: "only". Traditionally, all important meetings and records in the EU are translated into the major languages, some of them are available in most, if not all official languages. That makes it easier for all european citizens to read the actual records. English might be widely spoken, but fluency varies massively among the population. There's an argument to be made that this makes sense. I certainly wouldn't trust quite a few german politicians to negotiate in english, given the lack of grasp on the language that some have repeatedly demonstrated.
Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)
#10If we want to use only one official working language, it should be Esperanto. This would be neutral for any country (including Ireland and Malta). This would not be a threat to other languages and cultures.
Esperanto is easier to learn than any naturally evolved language. Its benefits are clear, it only needs a political support to thrive.