The European Union has 23 official and working languages. They are: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
The first Community Regulation determining official languages was passed in 1958. It specified Dutch, French, German and Italian as the first official and working languages of the EU, these being the languages of the Member States at that time. Since then, as more countries have become part of the EU, the number of official and working languages has increased. However, there are fewer official languages than Member States, as some share common languages. In Belgium, for example, the official languages are Dutch, French and German, whilst in Cyprus the majority of the population speaks Greek, which has official status.
There are two main entitlements for languages with “official and working” status:
    * documents may be sent to EU institutions and a reply received in any of these languages
    * EU regulations and other legislative documents are published in the official and working languages, as is the Official Journal
Due to time and budgetary constraints, relatively few working documents are translated into all languages. The European Commission employs English, French and German in general as procedural languages, whereas the European Parliament provides translation into different languages according to the needs of its Members.
More info: Official languages and other facts about European countries.

Pour attirer un nombre croissant d'étudiants étrangers dans les universités françaises, le gouvernement souhaite proposer des cursus en langues étrangères. Pour les détracteurs, il s'agit d'une marginalisation de la langue française… Une position que Geneviève Fioraso tente de nuancer.
Le ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur s'est notamment donné pour objectif d'attirer davantage d'étudiants étrangers. Et pour cause: la France a perdu du terrain face aux pays accueillant le plus de jeunes internationaux. Le gouvernement est donc parti d'un constat: si les étudiants boudent la France, c'est à cause de la perspective d'avoir à apprendre le Français avant même de venir. L'idée est donc de mettre en place des cursus en langues étrangères, en particulier en anglais.
Une idée qui a fait hurler les défenseurs de la langue de Molière, l'Académie française en tête. Elle critique en effet "une mesure qui se présente comme d'application technique, alors qu'en réalité elle favorise une marginalisation de notre langue". De ce fait, elle demande que cette disposition, qui "porte atteinte au statut de la langue française dans l'université", soit retirée du projet de loi, qui doit être prochainement examiné au Parlement. Suite de l'article...

The Language of Reasons
Today’s post is by international hip hop activist Umar Alim Al-Junaid, author of “The Book on Language Learning: 10 Reasons Why African Americans NEED to Learn a Second Language”
In comparison to the rest of the world, some would say that being born in America has its divine-like advantages, some would argue the opposite. Yet, when it comes to language we can all agree that for the past 300 plus years English has been the most important language of capitalism.
The reasons I wrote “The Book on Language Learning: 10 Reasons Why African Americans NEED To Learn A Second Language” are many, but for now I’m going to give you the top 10, in no particular order.
Cultural Literacy. Cultural literacy means having exchange with other cultures with reflection and through an inclusive knowledge of the world around us. So, I wanted to write a book that celebrates art, history, and experience. Personally, I have found that the best way to do that is by learning the language of a particular culture/s that we find interesting which, in turn, I feel is a an overall celebration of the human family.
Business/Economy. I wanted to write a book that places acquiring a second language of utmost importance for American citizens as it pertains to our current economic situation as a country, but especially for those of us in the African American community who suffer the worst. According to an article by Rakesh Kochhar, Richard Fry, and Paul Taylor for the Pew Research Center “the typical Black household has just $5,677, Hispanic households $6,325 in wealth and the typical White household $113,149”. Keep in mind that this is total assets after debt during the great recession. And considering that careers in language are predicted to grow over the next 10 to 20 years it would be in the US interest to become serious about becoming a bi-lingual society. English is the lingua franca of global business, but for how long? Read more...

By Caroline Alphonso. After an 18-year run, the University of Regina is shuttering its francophone studies program. The number of graduates: Zero.
Parents may be clamouring to enroll their children in French studies in the early years, but interest appears to wane among university-age students. Post-secondary institutions in many parts of the country have seen a drop off in applicants, and are either shutting down, scaling back or pausing their French programs.
Thomas Chase, the University of Regina’s provost and vice-president academic, said only one student is currently enrolled in the university’s undergraduate French program; three were registered four years ago. Read more...

Plus de 33 000 Français apprennent actuellement le chinois. Un chiffre qui a littéralement explosé en dix ans. Avec, à la clef de cet apprentissage, un bagage culturel, mais aussi des perspectives d'emploi!
Le chinois mandarin est la langue la plus parlée au monde, avec 900 millions de locuteurs. En France, l'apprentissage de cette langue est devenu considérable, avec plus de 33 000 élèves qui l'apprennent dans 593 collèges et lycées. Cela représente une hausse de l'ordre de 13% par rapport à l'an dernier, et une croissance de 400% sur 10 ans, révèle une note de Joël Bel Lassen, inspecteur général de chinois au ministère de l'Education nationale. Et les cours couvriront bientôt tout le territoire, puisqu'à la rentrée 2013, le chinois devrait être enseigné en Corse, dernière académie de métropole qui ne le proposait pas encore.
Aujourd'hui, 90% des jeunes qui apprennent le chinois ont le français comme langue maternelle. Ce sont près de 17 000 étudiants qui l'ont choisi, dont les trois-quarts ne sont pas des spécialistes. Cette langue est enseignée dans 150 universités, instituts et grandes écoles. Voir l'article entier...

The ECML has established a Memorandum of Cooperation with Moscow State Linguistic University.
Waldemar Martyniuk, the Executive Director of the ECML,  and Irina Khaleeva, Rector of Moscow State Linguistic University, signed  the agreement which will focus in particular on cooperation on the ECML projects  “Developing migrants’ language competences at work (Language for Work)” and “Signed languages for professional purposes (PRO-Sign)” which are areas of particular interest for MSLU. The partnership agreement represents the first of its kind for the ECML and a formal way of increasing expert contacts between the ECML and MSLU.
Signed languages for professional purposes (PRO-Sign)
The PRO-Sign project will establish European standards for signed language proficiency for professional purposes, focusing specifically on sign language teaching in Deaf Studies and Sign Language Interpreting programmes. The project will provide definitions of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) proficiency levels for signed languages and develop a sample assessment kit for signed language competency at the C1/C2 level indicating the qualification of professional interpreters.
Developing migrants’ language competences at work (Language for Work)
This project will create a European network for professional development of teachers of migrant workers learning the majority language. It will produce a web-based resource centre for languages in the workplace, which comprises a toolkit of practical resources for planning language training provision, with examples of good practice and quality criteria and samples of teaching materials. See also: Moscow State Linguistic University.