Post-Brexit, English could be dropped as an official language of the EU

A Union Jack flag and European Union flag.
(Image credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

For the time being, English is an official language of the European Union and the main working tongue of its institutions, but that could soon change thanks to Brexit.

"English is our official language because it has been notified by the U.K.," Danuta Hubner, chairwoman of the European Parliament's constitutional affair committee, said Monday during a news conference on the legal repercussions of the U.K. leaving the EU. "If we don't have the U.K., we don't have English." Each member state can nominate one EU idiom, and while English is the most spoken language in Europe, Britain is the only one that chose it, Reuters reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.