Open boundaries of the European Union, the growth of level of life, globalization and technical progress provide many possibilities for people to travel, move from one country to another and to learn about various cultures of the world. The migration also increases its scale. All these factors lead to the mitigation of the boundaries of the cultures. People borrow new holidays from other countries, the immigrants bring their own culture to the new country and share it when communication with its citizens. The fusion of the cultures is vividly seen in food preferences. For example, more and more people attend pizzerias or sushi bars in various European countries. There are many international words in all European languages which proves very close contacts with other countries. In addition, English language becomes a must-know language for all the Europeans who want to be successful in their lives. As a result, the question of preservation of the cultural and linguistic identity of the European nations becomes more and more important.
Cultural variety and respect of human rights
Human rights are of critical importance for the European Union. The rights of the refugees and the immigrants are not an exception. According to the Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination, the European Union finance the activities which are aimed at fighting with racism and xenophobia. This program also maintains the control of the respect of the human rights in EU in all the countries-members of the Union. Another important task is to maintain the rights of the minorities. The European Chart previews the defence of cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.
There is another important program called “European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights”. Its target is to support and finance all the projects dedicated to the minorities and to develop the democracy and respect of human rights in all the European countries.
Linguistic pluralism
The leaders of the European Union always touch upon the question of the importance of the development of plurilinguism in the European countries. It will be a strong tool of the development of democracy and the creation of the comfortable conditions of life of the representatives of various countries. On one hand it is very important to keep the languages of all the countries of the Union and, on the other hand, the linguistic variety impedes the communication between the European nations and may cause multiple misunderstandings. In this case, we can’t but mention the role of the English language, as it has become the international language of communication not only in Europe but all over the world. So, there is a challenge for the head of the European countries to maintain their linguistic identity and, at the same time, to make the citizens know English on a decent level.
