Philip Oltermann
Philip Oltermann (b. 1981) is a German journalist. Based in the UK since 1996, he is deputy editor of the Guardian’s Comment is free. His book Keeping Up With the Germans: A History of Anglo-German Encounters will be published by Faber & Faber in February 2012.
Updated: 17 November 2011
Translation within the EU is a laborious and costly business. So why not save billions and make English the Union’s official language? Unfortunately, the price would be a loss of democracy and integration, not to mention a lot of angry Frenchmen. 
For its Eramus student exchange programme alone, the EU deserves its Nobel Prize, for fomenting trans-national love-making and the creation of true Europeans. 
Many countries, including Britain, look up to the Germans as a hard-working people. But such qualities belong to the distant past, points out a Guardian columnist. 
The appointments of non-politicians Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti in Greece and Italy has caused much ink to flow. But on the continent, experts have often played a positive role in politics in times of deep crisis, points out a Guardian editor.