European Parliament welcomes strategy for multilingualism

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Fwd from edling at ccat.sas.upenn.edu

European Parliament welcomes strategy for multilingualism

According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, only half of the EU citizens
say they can hold a conversation in a second language apart from their
mother tongue. Therefore, Parliament welcomed the Commission's proposals
for a new Framework Strategy to foster the knowledge of languages and to
take cultural and socio-economic advantage of it. In adopting a
own-initiative report by Bernat Joan i Mari (Greens/EFA, ES) by 537 votes
in favour to 50 against and 59 abstentions, MEPs said that it was
essential to improve the quality, effectiveness and accessibility of the
education and training systems in the EU by promoting foreign language
learning.

At present, there was a lack of detailed and reliable data and appropriate
indicators. They, therefore, welcomed the proposal for a European
Indicator of Language Competence which should include all official EU
languages and could be extended beyond the five widely-spoken languages,
in order to gain a true picture of language competence. But it was also
believed that proposals for multilingualism should not be limited to the
main official Member State languages.  The rapporteur and many other MEPs
took the view that the rights of the 46 millions EU citizens who speak
lesser used languages like Gaelic, Welsh, Frisian, Catalan or Basque
should be improved. Member State language plans should include these
languages and the possibility for interested adults to learn these
languages should be examined.

Parliament took the view that the widest opportunities should be provided
for migrants to learn the language(s) of their host countries. Particular
attention should also be given to promote language learning for people in
disadvantaged and difficult circumstances and for people with
disabilities.  Language acquisition should be an essential element in the
lifelong learning programme.  Furthermore, there was large support for the
proposals to develop language- related professions and industries. All
European languages will need new technologies such as speech processing,
voice recognition as well as work on terminology, developing language
teaching, certification ands testing. MEPs feared that otherwise
lesser-used languages will left behind with their linguistic social space
taken over by the more widely spoken languages.

The Commission's commitment to give citizens access to EU legislation,
procedures and information in their languages was also fully supported.
This would be an important step in closing the gap between the EU and many
of his citizens. This communication in the national languages should be
improved, regardless of whether the language in question has official
status at Member State or EU level.  Finally, the European institutions
and bodies were called on to cooperate closely with the Council of Europe
in the protection of linguistic diversity and language learning, and to
build on its experience in the area of language policy (such as the
Charter for Regional and Minority Languages). The European Ombudsman was
called on to pay particular attention to guaranteeing respect for the
linguistic rights of European citizens, and to provide more ways of
resolving EU language conflict situations.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/037-12642-317-11-46-
906-20061113IPR12527-13-11-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm

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