Language policy is what a government does either officially or through legislation, court decisions or policy to determine on how languages are used, cultivate language skills needed to meet national priorities or to establish rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages.
European Union (EU) has designed a specific language policy in 1992 which is known as EU Multilingual Language Policy (EU4Journalists, 2011). It is a policy which encourages the citizen of European Union (EU) to speak in their national language as well as two other European languages. The policy ratifies all official languages of EU member states. The EU has the capacity to move on with this policy since it has established a translation body which is known as the Translation Center for the Bodies of the European Union (EU4Journalists, 2011). It functions in interpreting and translating speeches, legal reports and documents into the languages of EU member states. It is considered as among the achievements of EU in term of fulfilling its motto of united in diversity where they could still communicate with each other without any barrier after the establishment of the translation body.
However, many countries including those in the EU also have designed a specific policy related to language where it favors or discourage the usage of a particular language or a set of languages. Although nations historically always used language policies to promote one official language at the expense of others, many countries also have designed policies to protect and promote regional and ethnic languages whose viability is threatened.
Currently, there is an issue regarding language raised by France as among the founding fathers of the EU. The writer is trying to analyze the conflict of national interest in policy-making regarding language with the aspiration of the European Union (EU) which relies on its motto, united in diversity. On the other hand, this writing is trying to analyze the possibility of using a common language which could be the best conductor language of EU official meetings and documents.
