01/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - English is most popular foreign language in schools. Close to two thirds (60%) of lower secondary school pupils in the 28 countries of the European Union were studying more than one foreign language in 2014, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office. A new report published on Monday 1 February shows that 100% of lower secondary pupils in Luxembourg, 98.5% in Finland and 98.4% in Italy were learning two or more foreign languages. At the opposite end of the spectrum, only 6.3% in Hungary, 7.9% in Ireland and 9.5% in Austria were studying at least two foreign languages. English is by far the main foreign language in lower secondary education in the vast majority of member states, studied by over 17 million pupils (97.3%). French (5 million pupils, 33.7%) comes second, followed by German (3 million pupils, 23.1%) and Spanish (2 million, 13.1%). In the European Union, 98.6% of lower secondary school pupils study at least one foreign language. (SPj)