English today has reached global dimensions no other language has reached before. While there are other lingua francas in certain geographical regions in the world, English is the most dominant lingua franca in many important international domains, including international affairs and its use as the lingua franca of official organisations, such as the European Union (EU).   In the wake of the result of the British referendum, voices were raised for the discontinuation of the use of the English language within the EU after Brexit. While this topic has received attention from journalists throughout Europe, to date there are very few studies on attitudes towards English in a post-Brexit referendum Europe. The present study aims to contribute to the filling of this gap by investigating attitudes towards English experienced by British expats living in Germany, employing semi-structured interviews with six British expats. Also included in the study is information about the expats’ use of different languages for different purposes. The findings indicate that i) they do not see the emergence of a Euro-English likely; ii) that their language choices are determined by inclusiveness; iii) that there may be different attitudes towards English in different parts of Germany; iv) that English is experienced as a door opener; and finally, v) multilingualism is a desired notion for them all. Combined, they suggest there is a discrepancy between the EU political line and the grass root reality.

Right of a member state to leave the EU in context of the Brexit Abstract One year has passed since the United Kingdom officially announced its intention to withdraw from the European Union membership. Brexit as this withdrawal is often called means the turning point not only for the view of the concept of the ever closer European integration, but it also presents feasibility of a new option for the EU Member States. It is astonishing that in spite of popular attention to this topic there is an absence of serious academic research dealing with the right of a Member State to withdraw in all its wide aspects. Therefore, this thesis aims at the goal of describing the problem of the withdrawal in the most complex way and not only in the light of the recent Brexit. For understanding the present situation, it seems to be necessary, at least in the limited way, to introduce the right of withdrawal as the external aspect of the sovereignty ultima ratio which even in the historical period before the explicit incorporation in the Lisbon Treaty had to exist. In a retrospective view, it is also crucial to mention cases which were in a strict sense not examples of a withdrawal of Member States, but that proved the practical accommodation of national instruments and procedures to termination of EU law application. On...