Democracy, communication and language in Europe's transnational political space

The external communication of the European Union (EU) suffers from the fact that the flow of information from the Europe of institutions to the Europe of citizens has until now had little success in inspiring popular political participation. This problem can be related to the politics of language in the EU. The paper begins with a discussion of two prominent views of the European problematic of language and the public sphere. The essential interconnections between public political communication and the issue of language in the EU are set forth in contrast with these positions. The paper then turns to the main parameters of an EU language policy directed to the external sphere of communication. A possible strategy for shaping the relation between multilingualism and a transnational public sphere in Europe is sketched out in the final sections.