(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)

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Britain’s supposed departure through Brexit is a golden opportunity for the European Union to seize control of its de facto official working language to the benefit of hundreds of millions of Europeans.

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The UK’s bewildering decision to leave the European Union, the so-called Brexit, has so many unimaginable ramifications that for decades UK and EU citizens will keep discovering new ones, and the fate of the English language, including the likely rise of “EU English”, is just one of them.

Two years after the close Brexit referendum, it seems safe to say that, on the whole, Brexit is going to be a negative development, if not a curse, for the UK (clearly, it already is), while for the EU itself it might be a mixed blessing.

More specifically, Brexit’s silver lining for Europe might have to do with unleashing the deepening of European integration in a whole bunch of areas where the Brits have been reluctant to go. After Brexit, they won’t have to, and the rest of the EU will be freed of the British veto and able to get as integrated as it wishes.

The emerging English Language Question – as I choose to refer here to the fate of the English language in the EU after Brexit – epitomizes both of the above points.

First, it is just one more of the many consequences of Brexit that nobody had really thought about before the Brexit referendum.

Second, by extension, it is one area where the departure of the Brits might unlock some liberating developments for the entire EU.

The fact of the matter is that, with the British voluntarily out of the picture,

The European Union must formally adopt its own form of English as its official working language:

EU English!

EU English, European English, or European American English, if you please.

The pros of such a wise policy move – the EU adopting its own kind or brand of the English language – will be manifold:

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Read the rest of this article on The European Views website here

(325 words cited out of a total of 1501 words)