EUROPA = EU?

Deutschland Wahl:  Elections in June 2014:  Should Germany withdraw from the EU?
Brussels reports:

The future belongs to those who speak three languages

From ESL Language Studies      August 28, 2013 at 10:22 am

According to the European Union, “multilingual citizens are better placed to take advantage of the educational, professional and economic opportunities created by an integrated Europe”.  That’s why the ability to speak three languages is the major goal of European language policy.

Whatever you think of bailouts, bonds, rebates and agricultural policies, the EU is definitely on to something with this. According to a 2012 report, more than seven in ten Europeans agree that people in the EU should be able to speak more than one language in addition to their mother tongue. And yet, at present, only a quarter of Europeans can do that.


The European Union’s policy proposes that every citizen should speak their mother tongue, a neighbouring language and a third, international language. For most people, this international language will be English. Although this is never specified – a core of French-speaking individuals hold power in European language policy – the 2012 report confirms that two thirds of Europeans (67%) consider English as one of the two most useful languages for themselves. That’s significantly more than German (17%), French (16%), Spanish (14%) and Chinese (6%).

Multilingualism gives you access to the world. Countries where the main language is spoken by relatively few people recognised this a long time ago, which is why the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland have some of the highest rates of multilingualism in Europe. Their economies have also been consistently among the strongest in Europe in recent decades. Perhaps with this in mind, newer member states such as Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are now among the most multilingual of all, with more than 50% of respondents in each country able to speak three languages.

In contrast, countries with a dominant official language that has a large number of native speakers have not been so proactive in encouraging multilingualism. Britain, France, Portugal, Italy and Spain are all well below the European average when it comes to multilingualism. Their economies have also been suffering for much of the last decade. That’s not to suggest that the cause for the countries’ economic problems has been a lack of language skills, but perhaps that the approach to languages could reflect something larger; perhaps to do with global outlook. Germany and Austria, both officially monolingual countries, have suffered less in the recent economic turmoil, and both have higher rates of multilingualism. Their economic strength has been based on exports.

Some top international business schools also have requirement of multilingualism. For example INSEAD, with its main campus near Paris and offshoots in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, requires proficiency in at least two languages (including English) and clearly states that “the ability to communicate in more than one language will give you a competitive advantage in the global marketplace and enable you to work effectively across multiple cultures.”

On an individual level, each language you speak opens up new places to travel, new people to meet and new possibilities for work. One of the most interesting trends to come out of the economic turmoil in Europe since 2010 has been an unprecedented flow of talented, educated young people out of Southern Europe and into the strong economies of Germany and Austria. 45,000 Italians moved to Germany in 2012, as well as 37,000 Spanish and 35,000 Greeks.  Global companies may offer English-speaking working environments, but most of the new arrivals will need to speak German. With the ability to speak their mother tongue, English and German, these new arrivals would have a significantly easier time finding work that matches their qualifications.

So those are the cold, hard stats behind multilingualism, but there are less tangible advantages too. For example, when you are able to speak more languages, you’re able to interact with more people and understand their realities. Each language is a lens through which we view the world and three lenses are better than two! Speaking English will allow you to communicate with almost two billion people around the world but that still leaves another 5 billion.

The future belongs to those who speak three languages, so don’t settle for two!

Find out more about language courses worldwide.

Sources:
EU LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE POLICY, http://ec.europa.eu/languages/languages-of-europe/
EUROPEANS AND THEIR LANGUAGES, Special Eurobarometer 386, June 2012 http://ec.europa.eu/languages/languages-of-europe/eurobarometer-survey_en.htm
WEITER HOHE ZUWANDERUNG NACH DEUTSCHLAND IM JAHR 2012, Statistisches Bundesamt,  https://www.destatis.de/DE/PresseService/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2013/05/PD13_156_12711.html

Should EU Citizenship Be For Sale? YES, says little Malta

From the EU Observer.com   Nov. 14 2013 
By Andrew Rettman 

BRUSSELS - The European Commission said on Wednesday (13 November) it has no power to stop Malta, or any other member state, from selling EU citizenship. "Member states have full sovereignty to decide to whom and how they grant their nationality," its home affairs spokesman, Michele Cercone, told press.  He added that the EU court in Luxembourg has "confirmed" in "several" cases that "it is for each member state to lay down the conditions for granting citizenship."

His remarks came after Malta on Tuesday passed a law to sell its passports for €650,000 each.
The scheme is expected to raise €30 million in its first year and up to €300 million a year when it is fully up and running. It is also designed to attract big spenders and potential investors to the group of islands, which are home to just 420,000 native people.

According to the draft law, which must still be signed by Malta's President, names of the buyers will not be disclosed. As EU citizens, they will also be entitled to live, work and, if need be, claim welfare, in all 27 other EU nations.

The Maltese opposition has attacked the scheme. Simon Busuttil, the leader of the centre-right Nationalist Party, said he will strip any buyers of their new passports if he gets back into power.
A Nationalist Party MEP, Roberta Metsola, filed a question to the EU commission which noted "this goes contrary to the spirit of what it means to be a citizen of Europe."

Alternattiva Demokratika, a Maltese green party, said it will "endanger" Malta's reputation as a "reputable financial centre."

Malta is not the only EU country to give perks to rich foreigners.  Portugal's "Golden Residence Permit" gives people who invest €1 million or more the chance to get a passport after five years. Austria, Spain and the UK also sell residency, but not citizenship, to wealthy outsiders.
Meanwhile, the Cypriot President earlier this year said anyone who lost €3 million or more in the EU bail-out can get fast-track citizenship.

Cyprus' previous regime was tougher. Under a 2007 law, foreigners could get Cypriot/EU passports if they had more than €17 million in a Cypriot bank, lived on the island, did business there and had a clean criminal record.

The rules did not stop the scheme from attracting shady people, however. In mid-2012, Cyprus took away the citizenship of Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, after the EU blacklisted him for bankrolling Assad's massacres.

According to the latest EU statistics, the UK grants the most new passports each year (177,565 in 2010), followed by France (114,599), Spain (114,584), Germany (109,594), Italy (56,153), the Czech Republic (36,012), Belgium (29,786), the Netherlands (28,598) and Portugal (23,238).
Malta handed out 1,080 in the same year.

END

This appeared to be an article to support the ROMA (or Gypsies) to earn EU citizenship.  But the price tag all but rules most of them out. --RSB

Wer ist Angela Merkel?

POLITICS

The past that shaped Angela Merkel

Few would have predicted a political future for Angela Merkel who, many think, has little charisma and few skills to make it in the media age. ....

Data, facts and figures

It's important to know where Angela Merkel comes from to understand how she became who she is. Rarely in Germany's recent history has a politician been as underestimated as Merkel. In her TV first appearances, the daughter of a priest from the East German countryside had no concept of how to act in front of a camera. There was no missionary zeal, rather, she was a very pragmatic person.

When Kohl fell from grace, Merkel was ready to take over

"Merkel is not driven by ideology," says journalist Jacqueline Boysen who wrote a biography on her before she became chancellor. "She is able to take decisions based on data, statistics and facts." If reason and argument suggest a certain decision, Merkel can ignore ideology or limiting party programs, Boysen explains.

Pragmatism is what counts, and so, Merkel can also review and change her own positions. After the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, she made an about-face on her former pro-nuclear stance and began to promote the phase-out of atomic energy. Changing her position didn't lead to any political damage; quite the contrary: she has changed from being perceived as "Helmut Kohl's little girl" to becoming simply "Mom." In short: she's got a tight grip on her party and the government. And there are good reasons for that.

Lessons learnt in East Germany

For instance, there is her happy childhood and the teenage years in the former communist East Germany. Angela Merkel was no dissident, no opposition activist. She did experience the usual limitations of the socialist dictatorship but it didn't affect her. "There was no dark shadow over my childhood," Merkel once described her past. But what she probably did learn from those years was to be careful in how to deal with others. Living in the GDR taught her to be neither too opportunistic nor to dogged.

Angela Merkel in 1992 - 'Kohl's little girl'

Angela Merkel is a good listener. Others describe her as someone with good communication skills. She's got the reputation of grasping a problem quickly but taking her time to make a decision on it. "I certainly don't decide things ad-hoc," the chancellor says about herself. "I look at a process in its entirety and also look ahead where a possible decision would take me." It's the scientist in her.

No traditional political career

Merkel came to politics late. And rather by accident. She was press spokeswoman of the last GDR prime minister, Lothar de Maiziere, and it became her chance to realize her talents at organizing and communicating. She'd only joined the Christian Democrats shortly before that, but hard work and ambition got her very far, very quickly.

In Kohl's cabinet she became minister for environment and nuclear safety in 1994. It was an important political post and a fitting ministry for her as she holds a PhD in physics. Regarding the controversial issue of what to do with radioactive waste, she was certain that the risks are controllable and that there was no alternative to nuclear energy. It was only after the Fukushima accident that she changed that position.

When Helmut Kohl lost the 1998 election, the party was in shock. But not Merkel: She realized it was her chance to find a place for herself in the post-Kohl era. The new head of the Christian Democrats, Wolfgang Schäuble, made her Secretary General and when Kohl got entangled in a party donations scandal, it was Merkel who took him off his high moral pedestal.

Which direction?

The CDU follows her lead but many wonder where she'll take the party

In April 2000, Merkel became head of the Christian Democrat Party (CDU) and in 2005 she made it into the chancellery - albeit as head of a grand coalition with her party's main opponents, the Social Democrats. Nonetheless - Merkel was chancellor.

Today, she's been at the helm of the party for 13 years and chancellor for the last eight. Her rivals from within the Christian Democrats have all fallen one by one over those years. There's no question Merkel can lead - but the question is where exactly the party is headed under her leadership?

It's a question that many in the CDU are asking, concerned that the party is losing its edge and character; there are many who do not see Merkel as embodying the essence of the party she's heading.

European Migration to Germany

Why learn German?  Check out this week's Economist:  

Sprechen Sie Job? More southern Europeans are going where the jobs are.   -- But not enough     

Feb 16th 2013 | BERLIN 

DANIEL GÓMEZ GARCIA, aged 23, is the sort of person Europe’s leaders may have had in mind when, on paper at least, they turned the European Union into a single labour market like America’s. Mr Gómez, from Andalusia in Spain, learned a smattering of German in school -- and passable English, while studying in America. But when he came back to Spain he saw that hardly anybody in his class of 80 had a job. “Nothing to do, so let me go to Germany and get the language,” he recalls thinking. In autumn 2012 he took an unpaid four-month internship at his embassy in Berlin and paid for his tiny flat-share by helping a local holiday-rental firm with its Excel spreadsheets. Last month that turned into a low-paying but permanent job as an accountant.

That is how the single market is supposed to work. Spain has a youth unemployment rate of 56%. In Greece it is 58% (see chart). By contrast, Germany has negligible youth unemployment (8%) and a shortage of qualified workers. Theoretically, people should be willing to move from the “crisis countries” to the boom towns, just as the Okies once flocked to California.

To some extent this migration is indeed happening. New arrivals in Germany in the first half of 2012 grew by 15% over the same period in 2011, and by 35% net of departures. And the numbers of newcomers from the euro crisis countries increased the most—Greek arrivals were up by 78%, Spanish by 53%, for example. But the absolute numbers (6,900 Greeks and 3,900 Spaniards during those six months) are still modest.
It is “astonishing how astonishing it still is that they are coming”, says Holger Kolb, at the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration. Some things are beginning to work as intended, such as the elimination of bureaucratic hassles for moving within the EU. Yet it seems that the EU can never become a truly integrated market. That is mainly because of language.  Mr Gómez finds life in Germany challenging— “Germans seem to always nag about recycling, or noise, or whatever,”—but the language is “the hardest part”.

Thus language has replaced work visas as the main barrier to mobility. When the euro crisis began, the branches in southern Europe of the Goethe Institute, the German equivalent of the British Council, were overwhelmed by demand for German courses, says Heike Uhlig, the institute’s director of language programmes. That demand was also different, she adds: less about yearning to read Goethe’s “Faust” than about finding work. So the Institute retooled, offering courses geared (more) to the technical German used by engineers, nurses or doctors.

Language, besides proximity, explains a lot of today’s movements in the EU, says Klaus Bade, another migration expert. For example, the largest group of new arrivals in Germany is still from Poland, which is poorer, though not a crisis, country. But its schools often teach German alongside English.
...
 

COMMENTS:   

Your comments merely patronize those who do not want to learn a second language. It is indeed a disadvantage that should be remedied and not promoted as a plus. 

One needs to understand one's place in the world in order to start speaking foreign languages.  

I am now in Greece and I am absolutely shocked by the almost complete lack of recycling effort  here - apart from the other problems - after spending six years in the Czech Republic - it really is horrible!  Young Greeks don't even understand why they should think about it. Their heads are full of nonsense about international conspiracy - about how it's all someone else's fault - and yet in the small simple ways that they could be making a difference they make none. This is not modern thinking.  PS Czechs are excellent at recycling! 

A great many (if not most) Greek kids live at home until they're older than this study, and therefore may not be actively seeking for employment.