English is EU's most European language

English is Europe’s most widely used language and spoken by more than half of European citizens, including those in EU hopefuls Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey.

Brussels pollsters asked 29,000 people from the EU 25 and the four countries with membership ambitions about language.

The Eurobarometer survey found that 51 per cent speak English as either their mother tongue or as a foreign language.

“English is the language most used in the EU, in particular as a foreign language,” said a commission spokesman.

Fifty six per cent of EU citizens speak at least one foreign language well enough to hold a conversation, while just under a third said they could speak at least two languages.

But 44 per cent admitted that they spoke no other language apart from their mother tongue, with six, member states, Ireland, the UK, Italy, Hungary, Portugal and Spain topping the list of monolingual EU countries.

German and French are the most widely spoken and understood foreign languages after English, with 14 per cent of Europeans saying they could hold a conversation in either language.

Adding French and German native speakers to the mix, the figures show that German is commonly used by around a third of Europeans and French by around a quarter.

Regional and historical factors still dominate the choice of second language.

Former UK colonies and allies such as Malta, Cyprus and Portugal, lean heavily towards learning English and French.

French is still the natural choice of foreign language for the UK and Ireland, and is typically the second choice for the country’s large neighbours including Germany and Spain.

German is more popular in the EU’s newest member states, Scandinavia and Turkey.

Most Europeans agree that language teaching should begin at primary school.

Sixty five per cent said they had learned a foreign language at school, while only 10 per cent had taught themselves.

“Citizens expect to learn languages in schools, it’s the natural place for learning”, said a commission expert.

Lack of time, motivation and cost are blamed as barriers to the EU’s policy goals of ‘mother tongue + two’, concludes the study.

Just under half disagree with the Brussels view of speaking two languages in addition to their mother tongue, agreed by member states in Barcelona in 2002.

“A large part of European society is not enjoying the advantages of multilingualism,” say the report’s authors.

But they conclude that the current situation is “promising” compared to similar results from 2001, with the number of people knowing at least one foreign language up by nine points from 47 per cent to 56 per cent.

“The developments over [the last] four years are positive.”

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