Languages of the European Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Language of the European Union Language (EU Countries) As a Mother Tongue (% of EU Population) As a language other than Mother Tongue (% of EU Population) Can speak the Language (% of EU Population) English 13% 38% 51% German 18% 14% 32% French 12% 14% 26% Italian 13% 3% 16% Spanish 9% 6% 15% Polish 9% 1% 10% Dutch 5% 1% 6% Russian n/a 1% 6% 7% Swedish 2% 1% 3% Greek 3% 0% 3% Czech 2% 1% 3% Portuguese 2% 0% 2% Hungarian 2% 0% 2% Slovak 1% 1% 2% Catalan 1% 1% 2%
(Looks good enough, the column furthest to the right is "can speak language").
From a priority stand-point of having most EUropeans able to understand one of the languages good enough italian, polish and russian looks most important to add. This is not just me being lazy about doing a translation to swedish, I also figure that if we are to have a neat page it is good to limit the number of translations necessary so we don't end up waiting for that elusive translation to Latvian... A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
I agree with you: when we have a translation in Italian, we will be ready to set up the petition page. Polish would be nice, but we must find somebody willing to translate.
If we don't have texts in Baltic languages, I don't think Russian would be politically wise... "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
A Dutch translation is coming this evening (probably 80% of Dutch mother tongue speakers have an at least decent grasp of English, but most of them still prefer Dutch, of course).
