We are mostly comparing EUROPE to the US , Europe also has big technology poles (Grenoble ,Berlin, Paris ...) , the problem is that big tech giants in europe work independently of each other or work with US firms!, the UE must create one single technology pole where all the firms will be implemented! Paris can't handle more than what it handles now !
Not trying to be an ass by saying that, but if you go to Europe claiming to be Canadian :-) and speaking English, you will not have a hard time pretty much anywhere, at least in Western EU.
I'm not sure where you've been but I'm still finding people not able to speak English in Luxembourg City (that is supposed to be really multi cultural as Luxembourgish citizens speaks French, German and Luxembourgish and also there a a lot of foreign companies, UE institutions and like 45% of the inhabitants of the town are expats).
And of course if I think about my country (Italy) I can think of plenty of people that are unable to say a word in English, and another huge amount of people that can't go over few words.
But I can concede that things are probably getting better as new generations are more exposed to English and they're doing better, but there's still a long way to go...
Yes, a lot of people in europe understand English and could deal with somebody else in English. But the general level is for from being enough to make everyone comfortable with it. Technology poles are possible, but they will remain technologic, because non-tech people don't want to speak English, even if they technically can. That's why I don't think we will see much more mixing in Europe for a little while.
