Rumors have resurfaced on many English-language websites that English will not be an official language in the European Union after Brexit and the 11-month transition period, i.e. on January 1, 2021. The news has been disproved by the European Commission.
The Scottish newspaper Independence, citing a European affairs correspondent, reported that English could be classified as a working language after the British had effectively quit after several member states decided not to use it anymore to translate documents. This news also appeared in The New European.
The European Commission strongly denied this news to Euronews. “This is not true at all,” said Daniel Ferrer, a spokesman for the Brexit Commission. “English remains the official language.”
This is not the first time that a rumor has spread about an English language “downgrading”. In 2016, Polish People’s Representative Danuta Hübner, one of the vice-chairs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs, spoke of the fact that if the UK was no longer a member of the European Union, there would be no member state that chose English as its official language. Ireland has designated Irish as its official language and Malta as its official language, despite the fact that English is also one of the official languages in the two countries.
English has been one of the official languages of the European Union since 1973, and although Ireland and Malta have chosen other official languages, English is widely used.
The official European Union website, which lists 24 official languages of the European Union, states that “After the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, English will remain one of the official languages in Ireland and Malta.
After the outcome of the Brexit referendum, the European Commission announced in June 2016 that any change would require a unanimous vote in the European Council on the issue of the official languages of the European Union.
