By Jessica Reed
You may remember our recent post about the European Union's new logo, "Together since 1957" (in english s'il vous plait). Its recent release didn't please many commentators, who are criticising it for several reasons:
- The logo is in english - the Union's commercial language, but seen by some as the rising of cultural hegemonization and linguistic imperialism.
- The commercial reference (the letter R in a circle) isn't really ideal if one wants to remind EU citizens that the Union is not only about opening markets and free exchange, but also about a social Union who not only cares about trademarks, but well being, culture and heritage issues.
- Coulisses de Bruxelles remind us that "since 1957" is an incorrect statement: it took years for the UK, Ireland and some of the nordic countries to finally join the Union; and it's without mewntionning that the notion of "togetherness" shows some serious weaknesses: we may all be part of Europe, but we do not all share the same monetary frame, judiciary system, defense policies, etc...
Enter the French. We are well known for making a fuss about multi-lingualism in the context of European Institutions. After all, fluent english speaker Jacques Chirac walked away from various european meetings in the past, as he felt the Union's lingual diversity was not properly acknowldeged. This time the discomfort associated with the logo was relayed by Catherine Colona, the European affairs minister, who sent an angry letter to the President of the European Commission.She explainned that while she understands the logo will be translated in the near future, it is for now impossible to appreciate its true symbolism- and if every country ends up having a different logo, where is the European unity it was suppose to convey?
While the argument might sound petty and childish to many, I think she has a point. I have trouble understanding the subliminal message which the jury who picked the logo wanted to send to non english-speaking european citizens...
