Brussels Capital of Europe : the new linguistic challenges
(2007) Brussels Studies — n° 6, p. 1-10 (2007)
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- Abstract
- "Language wars lie at the heart of Belgian history. Through a succession of bitter battles, endless power struggles and laborious compromises, Belgium’s political leaders gradually managed to elaborate, adjust and readjust a legal framework likely to facilitate a fairly peaceful cohabitation of the populations and a reasonably effective functioning of the institutions. But while squabbles are still going on about the survival of linguistic “facilities” in a number of Flemish communes or about how fluent Brussels firemen need to be in Dutch, the linguistic landscapes of Europe, Belgium and Brussels are undergoing unprecedented transformation which it is high time for us to appreciate." In this strong text, based amongst other things on the data presented in the Eurobarometer special 2006 issue entitled "Europeans and their languages", Professor Philippe Van Parijs gives his enlightened opinion as an intellectual involved in Brussels affairs in order to get the public debate to move forward.
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Citations
Van Parijs, P. (2007). Brussels Capital of Europe : the new linguistic challenges. Brussels Studies, 6, 1-10. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/154840 (Original work published 2007)