BRUSSELS is to force European Union train drivers to speak English under rules designed to foster closer ties between member states.
Rules to be announced this autumn under the EU’s “Train Drivers’ Directive” will mandate that a single common language is enforced.
Sources say that English is set to be selected despite misgivings among some EU member states. The EU has been pushing for “a single European railway area” for a number of years to facilitate easier movement on the railways across the bloc.
But rules stipulate that train drivers must possess a minimum language proficiency in every country they operate.
Officials have instead sought to standardise the language across all member states. Brussels sources confirmed that an update to the Train Drivers’ Directive is planned for the autumn. They warned that the decision could yet be delayed, however.
English is being considered as the common language for drivers when driving to neighbouring countries, sources added.
John Penrose, Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare, said: “Who’d have thought our influence in the EU would be bigger now we’ve left? It looks as though someone in Brussels has been missing the British sense of humour.”
The decision is likely to rankle MEPs that called for English to be banished as a language in the wake of the UK’s Brexit referendum.
Polish MEP Danuta Hübner, chairman of the European Parliament Constitutional Affairs Committee, said in 2016 that English should not be recognised. “We have a regulation ? where every EU country has the right to notify one official language,” she said. “The Irish have notified Gaelic, and the Maltese have notified Maltese, so you have only the UK notifying English.”
Officials in Brussels insisted that English would remain as an official language post-Brexit, however, as it has been since 1973 because other member states commonly use English.
Former rail minister Paul Maynard, Conservative MP for Blackpool North, said: “I very much welcome the recognition from the EU that English is the global language.”
Former Labour MP Tom Harris, who sits on the board of the UK’s HS2 project, added: “It’s a great compliment that English is being considered by the EU as the world’s universal language.
“I do hope this won’t lead to protests at the Commission. If that happens, can I suggest they protest in English so that complaints will be widely understood?”
Many EU countries have retained state-controlled rail operations until comparatively recently.
In 2021, the EU mandated that member states must break state monopolies and open up railways to competition.
This has strengthened services between countries – but left the European Commission with the decision to choose a common language to address safety concerns.