European Perspectives on Multilingualism: Towards a Utilitarian Language Policy in the European Union

The European Union has always proclaimed that languages are at the core of Europe’s DNA. It is not by chance that the EU’s motto “United in Diversity” is often advocated when referring Europe’s linguistic diversity. Recent developments, however, seem to be in the opposite direction. While discursively acknowledging the multilingual reality of Europe, the recent Commission’s announcement of the 28 portfolios points at a decreasing interest in multilingualism at EU level. The Commission has gone from having one entire portfolio on Multilingualism, to a Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, to no portfolio, as Multilingualism has been dropped from the portfolio on Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship.

In the Commission’s recent press release, the Commission noted that the current unit dealing with Multilingualism Policy; Skills and Qualification Strategy will move from DG Education and Culture to DG Employment, giving an instrumental, market-oriented approach to multilingualism. Small-state, regional, minority or lesser-used languages have already expressed their fear of the utilitarian approach on multilingualism. 

This paper seeks to analyze the evolution of the EU’s multilingualism policy over the last ten years from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective and trace the evolution and future direction of the EU’s language policy. It claims that while the idea of promotion, protection and respect of all the languages of Europe still remains in discourse, the instrumentalization of language for growth and jobs has increasingly become the dominant discourse, leaving other aspects of language such as social cohesion, identity, participation and citizenship aside.