Plurilingualism and European Identity
Plurilingualism and European Identity

Summary/Abstract: This article is about the role of international languages in the process of forming European identity. It maps the knowledge and usage of foreign languages among citizens of the European Union and compares these facts with the language policy of institutions of the EU. The article argues that, in contradiction to the vague policy of plurilingualism in the EU, citizens of the EU are slowly but gradually accepting a unifying model of plurilingualism, which will in the future be able to help the formation of a European identity. This model can be called the “NL model”, because it already exists in the Netherlands. Simply, it is possible to describe it as a plurilingualism based on the usage of a mother tongue as first language, English as second language and at least one other language as a foreign language.

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