Editing German language (section)

===Official status===
Standard German is the only [[official language]] in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in [[Germany]] (with [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Frisian languages|Frisian]] and [[Sorbian languages|Sorbian]] as minority languages), in Austria (with [[Slovene language|Slovene]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]), Switzerland (with [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Romansh language|Romansh]]), Belgium (with [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ([[Flemish language|Flemish]]) and French) and Luxembourg (with French and [[Luxembourgish language|Luxembourgish]]). It is used as a local official language in Italy ([[Province of Bolzano-Bozen]]), as well as in the cities of [[Sopron]] (Hungary), Krahule ([[Slovakia]]) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] [[Swiss Guard]].

German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} ([[South Jutland]] region), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, [[Poland]] ([[Bilingual communes in Poland|Opole]] region), and Russia{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} (Asowo and Halbstadt).

German is one of the 23 official [[languages of the European Union]]. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the [[European Union]], and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe.