EU multilingualism and rivalries of rights: from barriers to plurilingualism

Starting from the intricate and multi-faceted issues connected to the role language may perform at both the European and national level, the article aims at studying the various barriers deriving from EU linguistic diversity as an interesting perspective from which to analyse the multi-layered character of EU citizenship and to reflect on how to better exploit the EU linguistic richness while mitigating those barriers. To deal with these issues properly, the Chapter will focus on the reasons justifying a linguistic requirement, in the light of the differences between factual and legal barriers. The need of a plurality of factors, sources of law, policies and actors to manage the challenges deriving from linguistic diversity will also be considered. Education and plurilingualism as tools to overcome – in a balanced and coherent way – the linguistic obstacles deriving from EU multilingualism will be particularly analysed.