Decline of multilingualism: French in regression and the predominance of English

Question for written answer E-001199/2025/rev. 1 to the Commission Rule 144 Catherine Griset (PfE), Pierre-Romain Thionnet (PfE), Mélanie Disdier (PfE), Julien Leonardelli (PfE), Gilles Pennelle (PfE), Valérie Deloge (PfE), Alexandre Varaut (PfE), Mathilde Androuët (PfE), Angéline Furet (PfE), Séverine Werbrouck (PfE), Christophe Bay (PfE), Julie Rechagneux (PfE), Pierre Pimpie (PfE), Thierry Mariani (PfE), Aleksandar Nikolic (PfE), Pascale Piera (PfE) Subject: Decline of multilingualism: French in regression and the predominance of English Multilingualism is a fundamental pillar of European integration and an ideal borne by the Union’s founding fathers. However, the Lequesne report makes alarming reading: between 1999 and 2019, the proportion of Commission documents drafted in French as the source language fell from 34 % to just 3.7 %, while in 85 % of cases English was used. On the one hand, this imbalance is a democratic problem, as the main working language of the Commission is the language of just 1 % of Europeans. On the other hand, it promotes a worrying cultural, legal and political dependence on Anglo-Saxon influence. 1. Is the Commission fully assessing the risks that this shift towards monolingualism poses to linguistic diversity, European sovereignty and the democratic functioning of our institutions? 2. Will it take tangible measures to ensure balanced use of the official languages and to preserve the use of French? Supporters1 Submitted:...