EIRP Proceedings, Vol 1 (2006)

Abstract

Since the 1991 Maastricht summit, the general tendency within Europe has been oriented towards creating a unifying community that relies on institutions and legislation that promise stability and advance. The effort has been animated by the hope of shaping a multinational and multicultural community that would cohesively cohabit and progress in spite of obvious differences. EU has become an imperative, an urge, a landmark, an economical, political and cultural promise that European powers strive to make come true, enlarge and reinforce. If for Romanians the EU integration count down seems to have started ticking, equaling a major change and challenge at any level, when referring to language, the prospect of allying to the  recent years’ tendency in developing “a standard European language” might stir anxiety rather than elatedness. English has already assumed this dominant role within EU and has consequently inroaded most of the European languages. In concord with the latest trend, Romanian has lately become the subject of an intense linguistic Europeanization process that we aim at pointing to and signaling the effect.