Politics and policies of promoting multilingualism in the European Union

Abstract

This article examines the politics of policies promoting multilingualism in the European Union (EU), specifically in light of the recently released European Union Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism. As the most far-reaching and ambitious policy document issued by the European Commission, the Platform warrants close scrutiny at a significant moment when multilingualism seemed poised to become a policy field in its own right. This is an extremely important move given the fact that language policy has been politically untouchable at inter-governmental level and there is to date no coherent legally binding language policy either at the level of EU institutions or in member-states. I raise the question of whether the situation is likely to change in response to the Platform at a time when public support for European integration has been waning and the economic crisis surrounding the euro poses a new threat to the EU. The current austerity climate makes multilingual policy an easy target for budget cuts as evidenced in the European Parliament’s recent removal of the requirement to translate its plenary sessions into all 23 official languages.