Language Policy in European Countries

In nations such as France and the UK, citizens are considered equal members of a political community and equal treatment has been achieved by linguistic convergence on one privileged common language for all. Political membership is defined as all citizens being equal before the law. In other countries, such as Belgium and Switzerland, citizens are considered equal members of a political community but equal treatment has been achieved by multilingualism in which the political community recognises their particular languages. Political membership is defined by the recognition of the values found in the traditional cultures of that community.

Click on the French and Belgian flags to learn a little about the language policies in each country.

Web links:

• Language Policy in France*
• Language Policy in Belgium*

*The University cannot accept responsibility for external web sites.

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