September 2006

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HIGH LEVEL GROUP ON MULTILINGUALISM SET UP BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

September 2006 - Ján Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, has confirmed the setting up of a high level group in order to advise him on multilingualism issues. More specifically, the group will propose initiatives and give fresh impetus and ideas for a comprehensive approach to multilingualism in the European Union. The group has been set up in response to the communication “A new framework strategy for multilingualism”, issued in 2005 by the European Commission

The committee consists of 11 independent experts from across Europe who do not represent the interests of one particular country or language. The voice of minority languages, though, seems ensured by several members belonging to communities with lesser used languages such as Rita Franceschini, from Bozan, Ineta Savickienė, from Lithuania, Jaana Sormunen, from Finland and particularly by Josep Palomero, from the Catalan-speaking community in Valencia. Under the chairmanship of Commissioner Figel, the group will hold its first meeting on October 3 and will meet 5 more times before the European Day of Languages (September 26 2007), date in which its recommendations will be made public.