Law and Language in the European Union The Paradox of a Babel "United in Diversity"

by Creech, Richard L.

• ISBN13: 9789076871837
• ISBN10: 9076871833
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-05-01
• Publisher: Europa Law Publishing

Summary

The European Economic Community, founded in 1957, consisted of six Member States with a combined total of four official languages. By 2004, this organization had evolved into a European Union of twenty-five Member States with more than twenty official languages among them. This increase has presented numerous challenges to the EU's internal linguistic regime, where formal policy has been, with some notable exceptions, to treat all of these languages equally. Some of these languages English in particular have been more equal than others. Languages that lack nation-wide official status in any Member State such as Catalan and Welsh have been overtly denied equal treatment. Furthermore, the multilingual nature of the EU has had significant implications for any Member State that wishes to regulate the use of language within its territory, as such regulation can interfere with the rights accorded to citizens of other Member States to participate in free commercial movement throughout