By Kim Da-hee
English could lose official European Union (EU) language status after Brexit, according to reports Wednesday.
The EU has 24 official languages and Britain's membership has been a key reason for the organization to keep English. Therefore U.K.'s departure from the EU means English's loss of ground for survival.
"If we don't have the U.K., we don't have English," Danuta Hübner, chairwoman of the European Parliament's constitutional affairs committee, said at a press conference Monday. She said English was an official language only because Britain had nominated it.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hinted at his support for the move by using only French and German in his Tuesday speech to the European Parliament.
But not everybody seems to support the idea. Many EU officials consider it as no more than a "symbolic" move to protest Britain's vote to leave the EU.