Bad news from EU study of language teaching. In Eastern Europe you have to learn English or Russian, and they 'do not accept ancient Greek or Latin as alternatives.'

AP, Brussels
Friday February 11, 2005
The Guardian

Half of European children learn a foreign language in primary school, with English the most popular choice, a European Union study showed yesterday.

The study covered the 25 EU countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Bulgaria and Romania, for the school year 2002-03 and found that the learning of at least one foreign language had accelerated over the past five years.

English is particularly popular in central and eastern Europe. Overall, German and French are the second most popular. Most east European countries push Russian and English and do not accept ancient Greek or Latin as alternatives. Across the continent, English, French, German, Spanish and Russian account for 95% of languages taught in secondary school.