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Plurilinguisme et enseignement du français en Afrique subsaharienne

France sues Commission over primacy of English in EU hiring (Politico 30/10/2023)

October 30, 2023 8:12 pm CET, by Elisa Braun and Giorgio Leali

Photo : French President Emmanuel Macron has been working to boost the use of French worldwide | Hatim Kaghat/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images 

Paris is ready to put up a fight to defend ‘la langue de Molière’ in front of EU court.

The use of Euro-English and Globish, a simplified version of English used by non-native speakers, may have become widespread in the EU, but France has never given up hope of Brussels bureaucrats speaking French.

On the contrary, Paris is now attacking the bloc for hiring some new employees based on assessments conducted in English.

Brussels is currently hiring new officials in fields such as space, defense and economics, using a selection process involving some tests that are only given in English. Paris contends that those criteria favor anglophone candidates over their rivals, and has filed two complaints before the EU’s top court; one of them was made public on Monday.

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