LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Spring 2008

by Marija Pejcinovic Buric

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Sir,

It seems that many people in Europe have lately been worried about how to protect their own language and culture. Globalisation is seen as a threat to national identity and these concerns have inevitably been fuelled by debate over closer EU integration. Here in Croatia, a country well advanced in the negotiation process, I would say that questions of language and culture are nearer to many people’s hearts than discussions about the economic and political benefits of our EU accession. Evidence that the European Union is taking these issues more and more seriously is, therefore, particularly important to us.

Consequently, I read with great interest Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha’s suggestions over how to resolve the cultural and linguistic tensions facing Europe, and I support his call for an ambitious EU-wide strategy to strengthen a multi-lingual, multi-cultural Union. As Saxe-Coburg-Gotha says, the EU already has a solid structure in place to respond to people’s anxieties. It now needs to build upon past and present achievements to refine − rather than redefine − the Union’s policies on language and culture.

At the moment, these policies are designed to ensure that Europe’s many languages survive both in both formal and informal settings. The EU also promotes a European culture that neither endangers national identity nor threatens the cultural differences between member states; it also encourages local traditions to continue. The success of this approach over the past half century has been such that, despite the difficulties encountered en route, a multi-lingual and multi-cultural Union is now a fact of everyday life.

In future, we may find that Europeans react against globalisation by emphasising those features that are unique to their own culture. We therefore need to make every effort to explain that the evolving European identity is no threat to their national identity or local traditions. Different cultural values are complementary to a European identity; they are not mutually exclusive.

However, European citizens could only be persuaded that this is the case if none of their questions are left unanswered and none of their concerns ignored. In order to succeed, the EU’s existing and well-founded official language policy should be strengthened through adequate support for − and further development of − translation services. EU cultural policy should adopt programmes that clearly promote diversity within a European identity, and cultural and linguistic messages should be communicated to the public in an open and inclusive manner.

Perhaps the best way forward can be summarised by a metaphor. The EU never intended to blend all our different nations together in one giant melting pot. Rather, we should strive towards a European identity that is based on haute cuisine, where each ingredient keeps its individual flavour while also bringing out the unique taste of all the others.