Economy and Politics of Mono- Vs. Multilingualism in the EU (Some Aspects)

The choice between (“English only”) monolingualism and multilingualism in the EU has several implications, for instance 1) economic costs and benefits for producers and users of marketable innovations (patents), 2) functioning of local authorities applying for European funds, 3) access of EU citizens to the highest positions in the EU. The unique European patent  reduces costs of patenting (translation) while imposing additional costs of translation on potential users of patents. It has generated oppositions of several countries, e.g. Spain, Italy, Poland, for different reasons. The need to submit documents in English by local or regional authorities applying for European funds, apart from generating additional costs increases the “market value” of English and its centrality in the EU. The (informal) requirement that the highest EU functionaries must be fluent in English (and French) until recently considerably reduced the circle of potential “eligible” candidates. Recent decisions – election of Donald Tusk  with a poor command of English (and no command of French) as president of the European Council is a deviation from the rule. This election in a way strengthens the principle of multilingualism. However, neither opposition to monolingualism nor bad command of English by European politicians can not enhance multilingualism. The only viable solution is a strict division between fields where monolingualism can be acceptable or inevitable and fields when multilingualism must be respected.