EU foreign policy increasingly monolingual
(BRUSSELS2) That English is the dominant language is an established and unavoidable fact. French is now a minority language... We have to be realistic. But for English to become the sole language, especially in international and diplomatic matters, it is both dangerous and counterproductive.
We already knew that all the Defense Europe missions communicated mainly in English. Now that's a proven fact. They communicate only in English, whether on their websites or press releases. It is the same for the agencies: European Defense Agency established in Brussels!, Satellite Center in Torrejon, Institute for Security Studies of the EU in Paris!! And the trend is not about to get better (Read also: French, "dead language" of the ESDP?)
From the dominant language, we move to the single language
Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs did not speak a word of a language other than English during her hearing three hours in the European Parliament last week (1). Not a "hello" or "thank you" in any European or even global sabir.
The Spaniard Javier Solana, his predecessor as High Representative, spoke in addition to his native language, English and French. The Austrian Benita Ferrero Waldner, who officiated at the Commission for External Relations, spoke Spanish and English (very well) and made it a point when a question was asked in French to answer in this language as well. Catherine Ashton has adopted universal monolingualism and makes it a point not to speak any other language. Better. For European action on the earthquake in Haiti, the majority of communication has so far been in English (a shame for a French-speaking country). It took an official and journalistic reaction for Catherine Ashton to agree to send her written statements, also in French. As for the Commissioner for Research, the Slovenian Potocnik (future Commissioner for the Environment), he has also adopted "English only".
• Sound indicator latest press release on Haiti...
The EU's chief diplomat as an example
Catherine Ashton doesn't even understand "simple French". Example at the last press conference on Thursday. One of my colleagues from Radio Suisse Romande and Le Point, Alain Franco, asked him a question in French on Thursday during the press conference. It took the (discreet) help of its spokesperson (who handles the French well) leaning then in the ear of the High Representative to understand, what a beginner at the French Alliance could easily understand. One wonders how she will do at the European Council (when there is no interpreter) or in front of French-speaking African leaders, for example... I also remember the reactions with a French commissioner who does not understand English ...
• Watch the press conference (in the last minutes), it's symptomatic.
Nerdy !
It is generally the adjective that qualifies the journalist, who demands a translation into French of the main documents, who then passes for a mild nerdy, ignorant moreover, and hostile to progress. However, monolingualism is dangerous and retrograde. The fact of having only one language - which is not the native language of each one - obliges with harmful shortcuts. It also models a kind of single thought, made of standardized words - the meaning of which is generally forgotten by dint of being used.
As a journalist I regularly work in English and also try my hand at other languages (German, Italian, Spanish... at least in reading). It is abnormal that political leaders and an institution which have the obligation - by international treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights - to respect all languages and nationalities, practice what could legally be defined as discrimination, whereas journalists are increasingly being asked to speak at least two or three languages.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
(*) Everyone will answer me for an emergency or a translation problem. My experience of the last years teaches me that this is false! This is not an isolated fact. But of a practice repeated, built and developed. NB: the main political parties in the European Parliament communicate regularly in at least 2 languages. Why not at the European Commission?
(*) All journalists speak at least 2 languages (English or French or German) in addition to their native language. Need it be said that the EC does not contribute in any way to this pluri-linguistic training...
Hello Nicolas,
You are right to denounce this most eccentric situation!
In the criteria for choosing the President of the Commission and the Permanent President of the European Council, mastering several languages was presented as a determining factor!
How could we agree to support such a candidacy?
With all my most cordial encouragement and my congratulations for the quality of your blog and your analyzes that I often like to quote on mine (Regards citoyen)!
this will be the case for this article too, in order to give it a wider distribution!
With best wishes!
Patrice Cardot
Hello,
Regular reader of your Blog, we must now ask ourselves how to In practice, we can fight against this tendency. Within the European authorities, it seems logical to me that it is more or less necessary to speak three languages: French, English, German or Spanish.
May be the RP could she give us some ideas….
Personally, I find it unbearable that most Anglo-Saxons only speak their mother tongue and try to impose their way of communicating on us. I experienced this outside the EU area
The European Union today is not only the work of officials and officials of the Union, it is also a linguistic policy based on one principle: respect for linguistic diversity, and on an EDUCATION POLICY : getting every European to speak two other European languages in addition to their mother tongue.
European policy can only discredit itself by entrusting prominent, and in this case particularly symbolic, posts to people who are unaware of or cannot set an example of what, in language teaching in Europe today, is now considered ELEMENTARY: knowledge and openness to other cultures by learning one or two foreign languages.