The EU Could Lose English, Too

And more Brexit side effects
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2016 1:25 PM CDT
The EU Could Lose English, Too
This is Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 file photo of the EU, right, and the British flags as they are placed next to each other at EU headquarters in Brussels.   (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert , File)

The UK is set to exit the EU, and the English language may join it. Politico has this steadfast quote from Danuta Hübner, the head of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee: "If we don’t have the UK, we don’t have English." Hübner points out that no other EU country has English as its official language—the EU has 24 of them—so if the UK goes, so too goes its language, unless the other EU countries vote to retain it. Or maybe not? In a weird quirk, Politico notes there are discrepancies between the official French version and the English translation of the 58-year-old EU regulation on official languages. The former apparently provides more latitude. In other Brexit news:

  • Racist abuse may be on the rise in the wake of the vote. The Guardian reports preliminary figures showed a 57% jump in reported incidents between Thursday and Sunday (85) and the same span four weeks prior (54).
  • CNN shares one such incident: Flyers reading "Leave the EU - no more Polish vermin" left on cars.
  • Declaring the Brexit vote "a seminal event, and will lead to a less predictable, stable, and effective policy framework in the UK," Standard & Poor's on Monday dropped the UK's sovereign credit rating to AA from AAA, reports CNBC.
  • With David Cameron out as PM, Boris Johnson has emerged as a likely replacement. The Telegraph notes that celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is really, really, obscenely upset about that prospect.
(More Brexit stories.)

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