A ‘one-language’ EU policy would foster elitism and hit the least advantaged

摘要

In an increasingly English-speaking world, is multilingualism still needed in the European Union? Based on Eurostat data, Michele Gazzola finds that making English the only official language of the EU would exclude approximately four out of five EU citizens from having a deep understanding of official information. This would in turn foster inequality in the access to EU tenders and likely end up further fuelling Euroscepticism. He argues that the relatively small share of the EU’s GDP invested in multilingualism is a price worth paying to ensure linguistic inclusion.