6 ms·

I've heard that Sweden didn't want to make Swedish an official language of the EU when they joined, due to the fact that EU would then use a lot of resources to

• gpvos 5y ago
  I understood that each EU country can only declare one language to be an official EU language (to put a limit on the number of language combinations between which translations are needed). Because of this, there was some talk that English might be dropped as an official language when the UK left the EU, since Ireland puts forth Irish (Gaelic) as its official EU language. If so, since Finland can only propose one language, I suppose that will have been Finnish, not Swedish.
  • midasuni 5y ago
    What does Malta have?
    • gumby 5y ago
      Maltese, as the UK had already nominated English when Malta joined.
  • sterlind 5y ago
    isn't there one canonical language of the EU which prevails in disputes between different translations of treaties? what will they change to, French I guess?
    • Scoundreller 5y ago
      Not in Canada. Federal laws and trade agreements are in English and French and you don’t simply defer to one if there’s a disagreement. (And if you want to get off on a technicality, see if one version is more favourable to you, as the “feeling” of words can’t always be a 1:1 match).
  • detaro 5y ago
    That was a rumor. The European Council votes on official languages, and English remaining was not really in question, since it's an official language in member states and (one of) the major working language(s) of the EU.
• gumby 5y ago
  AFAIK you can only nominate one language. Ireland and Malta didn't need to nominate English (as the UK had done so) so they nominated Irish and Maltese. Now the UK is gone I'm not sure how well that works for them now. Perhaps the EU could adopt the Indian strategy of using a language that no national group claims, thus seemingly not favoring any one member group over another.
  • BitwiseFool 5y ago
    I think the French would fight English being the official Lingua Franca in the EU as hard as they can.
    • Hamuko 5y ago
      They already are.
    • satellite2 5y ago
      Why would they? It's obvious that French is not going to be the main one and they master English much better than German.
      • BitwiseFool 5y ago
        I'm sure it's a point of pride. French people are very proud of their language, in general. And, despite being at-peace and having relatively friendly relations with the UK for at least a century, I'm sure there is a lingering sense of rivalry between them. The Britain and France have been adversaries for nearly a thousand years, after all.
        • satellite2 5y ago
          Are they though? I'm pretty sure your vision of the French is more representative of the French from the seventies.
        • Orphis 5y ago
          There will definitely be always some rivalry between the too countries. Not animosity though, most people are over that. Source: French