Content area
Full Text
Abstract: The paper discusses the challenges of the multilingualism policy in the EU composed of 28 Member States and 24 official and working languages. The aim of the paper is firstly to present multilingualism as the policy in the EU as well as the diversity of EU official languages. Secondly the paper highlights multilingualism as a tool to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market with the emphasis put on the benefits of multilingualism for European companies. Thirdly challenges resulting from the multilingual policy in the EU are discussed, encompassing in particular translation and interpretation costs, legal implications of translation and interpretation errors, future accession of new EU Member States.
Keywords: multilingualism policy, European Union, translation, language, official language.
JEL codes: F50, 052, Z13.
Introduction
European societies are facing rapid change due to technological advances, globalisation and ageing populations. Increasingly European citizens interact with their counterparts from other EU Member States, work and live outside their home countries and their life becomes more international and more multilingual. On the one hand increased linguistic diversity is an expression of richness and national heritage but on the other, without appropriate policy, it presents multiple challenges widening the communication gap between people from different cultures and giving the multilingual access to better working conditions whilst excluding the monolingual. Moreover, language barriers can prevent European citizens and companies from fully exploiting the EU internal market's opportunities. Multilingualism can also be a barrier to effective cross-border cooperation between administrative services in different EU Member States [European Commission 2008, p. 5].
With 507 million citizens in 2014 and 28 Member States, the EU has 24 official and working languages, some of them with a worldwide coverage. Some 60 other languages are also part of the EU heritage and are spoken in specific regions or by specific groups [European Commission 2008, p. 4]. The official and working languages of the European Union are: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish.1 Each new EU member state when joining the Community was allowed to have its national language as an official language of the EU. The only nation that has not done so has...