Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-04-Speech-4-110"
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"en.20030904.5.4-110"2
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".
The recognition of language diversity within the EU is no folklore. There are currently 40 million EU citizens who speak a language other than the official national language, and next year they will total 46 million. For the children and grandchildren of migrants, the language of the environment will become their first spoken language. This does not apply to stateless peoples or to people who live in pockets of society on the other side of the state border that separates them from those who speak the same language. Within Europe, there has been a long-term battle for education, administration and work in the citizens' own national language. People without this opportunity end up in the position of second-class citizens. The first-class citizens are those who speak the prevailing language at home or who have completely adapted to it. Within the EU, a stark contrast is starting to emerge between peoples who now have their own Member State and peoples who are treated as minorities within states that predominantly speak a different language. The language of this latter group is still not being recognised within the EU, unless it happens to be the same of that of the neighbouring country. For example, the ten million Catalan-speakers will continue to wonder why their language counts for less than the much smaller languages of the Danes, Finns, Baltic peoples and Slovenians. We will soon face major conflicts unless a solution is found in good time."@en1
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