This is a non-story. There are three working languages of the EU: English, French and German. Everyone in Brussels will roll their eyes, use French for six months and then revert to English because it’s the one most people speak. Would they have done this if Brexit hadn’t happened? Yes, they would. France has a chip on its shoulder about French being replaced as the world’s lingua franca, but stunts like this aren’t…
French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
41–50 of 392 posts
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#42I’d have thought they would have kept English as it’s effectively a neutral language at that point - it would be convenient to avoid accusations of German or French dominance should either push for their’s in English’s place
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#43Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#44Great, well then I suggest that we just repeat this process whenever a new presidency takes over. Wonder when it's Denmark's turn again - we really missed the opportunity in 2012 by being so darn agreeable all the time.
Are there other countries than Denmark speaking danish in the EU , or elsewhere ?
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#45Ah, a return to the diplomatic norms of the 178th century. Literally a lingua franca, after all.
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no other country in the EU that speaks French, either. And by numbers, German should prevail.
Your first point is incorrect: Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages/...
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#47Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#48The sane thing to do after the Brexit, was to embrace English as main language, since it has not become neutral ground! According to Wikipedia we have: * Germany: 56% English speakers, 14.5% French speakers * Italy: 34% English vs. 19.43% French * Spain: 22% English vs. 11.73% French * Sweden: 89% English vs. 8% French I can't get over how bad this decision is. How can you ignore these kinds of discrepancies? [1] htt…