Russian language in EU discussed in Berlin

Russian language in the European context conference was held in the capital of Germany, Russkoye Pole website reports. The event was organized as a part of the large-scale international forum called Russia in the European Civilized Environment, which gathered hundreds of Russian expats from Germany and other European countries. Questions of Russian language in the European Union and perspectives of its support and popularization were discussed at the forum.

Conference participants have noted that despite Russia is not a member of the European Union and Russian is not an official language; several million Russian-speaking compatriots live in the European countries, so it is impossible to ignore questions of Russian language development.

Participants have remarked that the situation with Russian language and the possibility of its studying is rather favorable on the West of Europe, unlike the countries new to the European Union, where basic agreements of the European Union and United Nations’ Convention for Children’s Right are frequently infringed. There is a lot of evidence of local population’s discrimination due to inability to get education in their native language. Conference participants have mentioned that currently Latvia is witnessing dramatic events, where Russian-speaking population is going on strikes to prevent bans for education in Russian language made by the Latvian government. Provision of the official status to the Russian language could be a possible way out. It is noteworthy that this problem was interesting for both Russian and German speaking audiences.

Everybody agreed that Russian language should be supported by various programmes, grants and different activities directed at its popularization.

Russkiy Mir