Research paper on Cross-task analysis: "The practical linguistic barriers faced by economically active EU citizens" (D5.6)
Multilingualism shapes the European cultural identity as well as its legal system. Nonetheless, some aspects of the EU's plurilingual character do not simply represent a cultural enrichment, but are also of crucial importance in dealing with the exercise of European citizenship rights and may turn into practical hindrances to their full enjoyment. At the same time linguistic diversity in Europe is constantly increasing due to mobility and new immigration phenomena, and to the strengthening of individual and collective language rights (also linked to the protection of national linguistic minorities, such as, for instance, parity of languages, right to use one's own language in oral and written relationships with the public administration and with judicial authorities, etc.). This Deliverable aims to provide a systematic survey of the linguistic barriers arisen from the multilingual drafting of EU law, as well as from some national contexts with specific reference to the exercise of EU citizens' economic rights. From the latter perspective, the research will describe how a lack of a clear linguistic policy might transform the regulations of language use into barriers to the effectiveness of EU citizens' rights. The analysis is carried out from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective and deals with, on the one hand, the linguistic obstacles affecting the main fields of survey on economic rights chosen by the project (professionals, consumer rights and IPR) and, on the other hand, some specific linguistic barriers autonomously highlighted by national reports as particularly challenging in a given Member States.