As in 2017, also this year Italian will be one of the restricted group of languages used in the final selection of European Union officials. The news was confirmed by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) in a note disclosing data on the second language known, at least at B2 level, by the participants in the upcoming general competition in 2018 ; English (97.86%), French (51.30%), Spanish (27.98%), Italian (26.86%) and German (19.33%).
This is a major success for our Country achieved by taking action against the current practice of applying the French-English-German trilingual paradigm through the veiled distinction between “official languages” (the 24 referred to in EC Regulation 1/58), and “working languages” or “vehicular” languages, in every possible context, including the judicial, where Italy’s petitions lodged with the Court of Justice (case C-566/10) and with the European Court (case T-353/14 and T17/15) were successful.
Italy is heavily committed to continuing along these lines to forcefully fight against any other language discrimination policy adopted by the European institutions, in particular in the area of public communication (press conferences, documents and web sites), thus foregoing the possibility of communicating with millions of EU citizens. A communication that is all the more necessary at a time when it is most urgent to relaunch the European project.
For further information about the procedure followed in choosing the languages for the EPSO competitions, refer to the web site https://epso.europa.eu/help/