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Comment by ArkanExplorer | Hacker News Reader

The EU needs to go further, and adopt a formal 'EU English', providing a framework for schools across the bloc to offer public education in English at all levels, at least in major cities.

Adults can already move across the continent and work and speak English - why not children?

Right now, its basically impossible to move across the continent with a family - you will need to send your children to expensive international schools.

This is definitely one of the factors why the fertility rate in Europe is so low.

For example in Bulgaria, international schooling in English in high school is about $12,000/year/child - more than the average annual salary!

This is one of the major reasons the Anglosphere countries are such major migrant destinations - completely free Government education in English.

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> The EU needs to go further, and adopt a formal 'EU English', providing a framework for schools across the bloc to offer public education in English at all levels, at least in major cities.

Never happening. You don't really understand how each country's language is part of our culture.

> Right now, its basically impossible to move across the continent with a family - you will need to send your children to expensive international schools.

Yes, it's easy, you just integrate in the country you live in and have your kids learn the local language.

> This is definitely one of the factors why the fertility rate in Europe is so low.

No, it's because kids are expensive and folks have less kids when access to birth control is decent / when folks are less religious, unless they have strong support from the government. See how having a kid and working as a mother in Germany is still considered shameful.

My cousins back home in France didn't even think twice about having kids at 26-27, because they knew they wouldn't pay outrageous money for daycare or university.

English is already becoming the de facto EU wide language, but things like schooling in English will take a lot more time. Local populations get a bit paranoid about the local language "dying" because a few foreigners choose not to learn it.

The English have now left though, perhaps they'll try and revive French's popularity as the language of diplomacy?

That's what's cemented Englishes ascendancy. No one wanted to give the British yet another advantage, now they're gone.

The French have already lost that battle (English won), but I doubt they'll ever stop pushing their language.

If your only goal is to attract economic migration then this may be fine. I'm quite happy with keeping the diversity of European languages intact and for someone who wants to make a real commitment to a country learning a language shouldn't be a problem.

Also for what it's worth I moved around Europe as a kid coming from a lower middle-class background, didn't go to international schools, and learned two languages just fine. Kids pick languages up fast.

Also what has speaking English or intra-european migration to do with fertility rates? For the European fertility rate it doesn't matter how much you move around in Europe.

>The EU needs to go further

No it doesn't. It is not within the purview of this supranational bureaucracy to be the gatekeeper of the English language. Bulgarians can stick with Bulgarian. There is a lot to do in that country to make it prosper on its own.

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