This contribution reviews the evolving legal framework that underpins language rules and practices in the European Union. It seeks to address EU language issues holistically, arguing in particular that concerns about the management of the official EU languages should not be divorced artificially from questions relating to minority languages. The development of the legal framework has, however, become increasingly fragmented, and this has problematic implications for both structural and substantive coherence. It is suggested that until and unless the legal foundations of EU language policy are carefully worked out, its continuing ad hoc construction will never deliver a more rational yet ideologically and legally sound EU language scheme.