BRUSSELS, Sept. 23(Xinhuanet)-- Nearly half of the European Union(EU) population say they can speak at least one foreign language, according to a Eurobarometer survey published on Friday.

However, the results vary considerably from one country to another, says the survey conducted June by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU.

Around 30 percent of the British and Hungarians, and 36 percent of the Portuguese, Italians and Spanish say they can master a foreign language whereas 99 percent of the Luxembourgish population is at least bilingual.

The survey also shows English as the most popular second language which is used by one third of the EU population. It is followed by German(12 percent), which has slightly overtaken French(11 percent) as the second most spoken foreign language in the EU due to the enlargement of the European bloc.

German is widely used in the 10 countries which joined the 15-nation EU last year.

The enlargement also lifted Russian to the fourth place-- tiedwith Spanish-- in the list of the most widely spoken foreign languages in the EU.

From an occupational point of view, students are the most likely to speak a foreign language. Almost eight out of 10 students can use at least one foreign language.

Since 2001, the European Commission invests over 30 million euros(36 million US dollars) annually in supporting a number of different actions and programs in favor of language teaching and learning. Enditem