When we talk about Europe we mostly talk about rules, institutions and power – especially in light of current geopolitical shifts. Understandably so. Yet the way Europe communicates, not only externally but especially internally, tends to receive far less attention.
With 24 official languages and 27 Member States, linguistic and cultural diversity is not a backdrop in the European Union, it is part of how it operates.The question is how to communicate effectively across this complexity: in meetings, negotiations, and day-to-day cross-border collaboration.
I experienced this first-hand. Looking back on my years in Brussels, what stands out to me is that even in an environment where you work daily with colleagues from all over Europe, there was limited guidance on navigating differences in communication styles. While I was aware of some of the similarities and differences, knowing about them and actually knowing how to work with them are two different things.
Researchers such as Trompenaars, Hall, Hofstede, and Meyer have extensively studied intercultural communication across countries and cultures. Their work gives valuable insight into how collaboration across borders can be improved — and, perhaps more importantly, it helps us become aware of our own cultural assumptions and how they shape the way we see the world.
Their frameworks address communication-related dimensions such as directness, relationship-building, hierarchy, and perceptions of time. While these models compare countries on a global scale and provide a useful foundation, less attention has been paid to how European cultures specifically interact with one another in communication and what that means for collaboration in EU settings.
What actually happens when professionals from different European backgrounds sit around the same table? Which communication factors make some collaborations work, and others not? These are the questions that matter in practice, but are relatively underexplored in a structured way.
That is why I started Noma Communication: to help policy advisors, business professionals and teams communicate more effectively in Europe, across languages and cultures.
