Languages of the European Union
| Languages of the European Union | |
|---|---|
| Official languages | |
| Semi-official languages | |
| Minority languages |
List
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| Main immigrant languages | |
| Main foreign languages | |
| Sign languages | |
The languages of the European Union are languages used by people within the member states of the European Union (EU).
The EU has 24 official languages, of which three (English, French and German) have the higher status of "working languages" of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all languages as working languages), while one (Irish) has the lower status of "treaty language". The three working languages are those used in the day-to-day workings of the institutions of the EU. The designation of Irish as a "treaty language" means that only core documents such as treaties must be fully translated into Irish, while all other translations and interpretations are performed on an ad hoc basis.
The EU asserts that it is in favour of linguistic diversity. This principle is enshrined in the EU Charter (art. 22) and in the Treaty on European Union (art. 3(3) TEU).
In the European Union, language policy is the responsibility of member states and EU does not have a common language policy; European Union institutions play a supporting role in this field, based on the principle of "subsidiarity", they promote a European dimension in the member states' language policies. The EU encourages all its citizens to be multilingual; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their native language. Though the EU has very limited influence in this area as the content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states, a number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity.
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