For me the absolute best thing about the EU is the freedom of movement it gives us. I like knowing that I can for example move to France or Germany or even Hungary and I won't need a work permit, residence papers or anything like that. Here in Cambridge, many restaurants and similar business seem to be staffed by Europeans i.e. Italians, French and Spanish. One of my workmates is a young Polish guy. They come over to work for a while, improve their English and see a bit of the UK. I think that's marvellous and if the UK weren't in the EU, they wouldn't be here.

How did we get from "What will happen to the EU if the consititional referendum isn't passed?" to Martin Luther King, Jr and rich white people???

TJGuy: That's my fault. I will delete my comments. Don't really belong here.

Jabch: The lanugage issue is one that has been with the US long before it was the US. One of the first things that had to be settled at the constitutional convention in 1787 was what langauge to write it in. It came very nere to be written in German. It was not until the the 1820s that English took over and become the dominant language when a world wide famon hit as a result of a volcano eruption. At that time there were hundreds of thousands of Irish arrived and that is when English became the dominat language. Here in Phoenix, Arizona I can assure you that many people speak Spanish only and are long past the third generation. If you should ever travel to the east side of Arizona and tune your radio into station KRES you will hear a language that you have never heard before, NAVAJO. The Navajos are an indian tribe and language that gave great assitance to the US during the second world war.

How we got from the EU to MLK and rich Ameircans, it seems that some in Europe feel that because we have muliple economic classes, that we still have slavery. The forum started out on the EU constitution, and how it will encroach on the rights and freedoms when the EU starts to starts to make Europe one country. The EU will be succesful as long as it is pretaining to trade and economic issues. When it starts to meddle in local laws and it starts to tell one or two countries that "you must change this law, or that law" then it will collapse. An organization such as the EU cannot abridge the rights and freedoms of so much as one country without resulting in failure.

DD: But then it came down to English or German, when for example just in Spain there are 4 official languages so the dimensions of the language issue in Europe are absolutely larger. I was just mentioning this because a few moths ago I saw on the Spanish news that some groups wanted the EU constitution drafted in their local dialects. So I think that if the Europeans have to deal with this kind of things in every state-country it must be something that slows the process of becoming a united strong "nation". But probably this is just a secondary issue.

Booklady,

Sorry I just got to your last post just now. Touche.

You are certainly correct, Dessert Dewler when you state:
Particularly in the incipient stages, once the countries of Europe bond in every sense, then they can develop more cohesive cultural and societal structures. Otherwise, there will be serious problems.

Jabch, I also agree with your statement that the multiplicity of languages is secondary. It is a challenge and will remain a challenge for some time. But, I would not consider that the major challenge, like say the challenges posed by the marketplace, or the challenges posed by cultural norms.

Do you think that some time in the future there will be a dominant language for Europe? One which every citizen must learn?

Thanks, Gazpacho!

he he...depends if the French have it their way!!

I saw a program on PBS about the language issue in Switzerland. Basically, there's a movement to make English official in Switzerland. Many of the interviewees in the program argued that it already is the language of communication among not-English native speakers. For example, if a German speaker and an Italian speaker try to communicate with each other usually they do it in English; also in many Swiss colleges study papers are required in English. However, at the time the proposal arrived to the government it wasn't very welcomed.