November 2005

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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION CALLS FOR ACTION TO PROMOTE LANGUAGES AND LAUNCHES A NEW WEB PORTAL (Eurolang)

November 2005 - The European Commission adopted its first ever Communication on the issue of multilingualism and linguistic diversity under the watchword “the more languages you know, the more of a person you are.” The document explores the various facets of the Commission’s policies in this field and sets out a new framework strategy for multilingualism with proposals for specific actions.

To mark the occasion, a new web portal on languages has been launched on the EU’s interinstitutional website EUROPA, with access in the current 20 official languages. It aims to be an easy point of entry for the general public, the media or students to information about languages from the European Union. The subjects covered range from the Union’s policies to encourage language learning and linguistic diversity, by way of a review of language skills in the Union today, to the rules for the use of the EU's own official languages.

According to Ján Figel, Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism who launched the communication, “languages are what makes us human, and Europe’s linguistic diversity is at the core of its identity”.

The communication sees language knowledge as a desirable life-skill for all EU citizens, and presents the various actions set up by the Commission to promote and develop language skills and linguistic diversity. Through the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes, for example, the Commission puts 30 M€ each year into actions such as training, mobility of students and teachers and funding class exchanges. Moreover, the Commission will be investing more in language-related research into ways of overcoming language barriers through new information and communication technologies, as well as in the field of social and human sciences.

In addition, the Commission are organising a conference on regional or minority languages and education systems in Brussels next year, 27-28 April 2006. Speaking to the press about the usage of regional languages in the Commission Mr Figel underlined that the Commission follows the line of EU Council rulings mentioning the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician, where languages recognised by states will be used. He stated that the Commission is language friendly in practical terms adding "this is our Union, its important we create a respect which is real."

(Source: Eurolang, Davyth Hicks)