Status of english in the EU: post-Brexit landscape

Abstract

Post-Brexit status of the English language has been igniting dispute and commotion of attitudes across Europe for several years now. Opinion is divided on the subject: after Brexit, can or cannot English retain its status as one of the EU official or working languages? On the one hand, preserving English as an official language of the EU can be problematic after Brexit. In the EU, every member-state enjoys the right to choose one official native language. Malta and Ireland are the only two countries in which English is official, but when they joined the Union, Malta chose Maltese and Ireland chose Irish as their official languages. This means that after the UK finally “brexits”, there remain no member-states that have opted for English as their official EU language.