Lingua franca poreikis ir galimybės Europos Sąjungoje

Abstract

This scientific article discusses the possibility of a common language and (or) institutional working language (lingua franca) of the European Union. The demand for such evolutionary improvement comes from economical and euro-integrational purposes. As the non-institutional unification of a common language is possible in the near future, the opportunity of unification of the working language is far more difficult and could only be accepted in a longer term.The acceptance of a common language would improve the flow of work force, increase the scale of European tourism, cut institutional spending and establish other important improvements, which would benefit the Union in the future. This article gives some statistical information about the views of citizens of the Union about the discussed possibility.The idea does not interfere with the doctrine of multilingualism on non-institutional level, because a common language would strictly be secondary, next to the states official language (if the common language is not the national language). In the case of unifying the working language of the Union‘s institutions, the result of the process would remove the injustice of favouring languages of the most powerful states and establish a compromise which would be more just and equal than it is today. The article proposes an opinion of how the procedure of language unification should take place. There is a discussion of the possibility of involving UNESCO in the common language learning process. Some of the exceptions which would be mandatory to be made is also listed. Other exceptions would be accepted through the process of discussion. Finally, the opinion of which language should be accepted as a common language is shown. The pros and cons of the most widespread and influential languages are mentioned and, accordingly, a conclusion is made. The conclusion - English language has the most pros and the least cons.