Brussels, 26/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - Organised by the European Union and the Council of Europe, the European Language Day, Wednesday 26 September, gave rise to thousands of different activities across Europe celebrating linguistic diversity and promoting the learning of languages. It aimed to stress that learning and speaking different languages was a way of increasing tolerance and understanding between people from different countries and cultures. Apart from the official European and national languages, the Day also covered regional, minority and migrant languages and sign language.
The Cinquentenaire Park in Brussels was one of the 18 sites in Europe chosen for the "Languages Lift Off" at 13: 30 hrs, when hundreds of schoolchildren released thousands of balloons in the presence of Commissioner Viviane Reding. The finders will have the chance to win prizes with a language theme such as holiday vouchers. Short flights (up to 30 metres in altitude) were possible in the European Year of Languages Hot Air Balloon (provided by the Luxembourg company Euroscript with co-financing from the European Commission). Visitors had the chance to go to the languages marquee and try out the "Language Tasters", "Lingua Snacks" and "Vivre les langues" by trying out short, entertaining language lessons using modern teaching methods. There was also a Language Bus running between the Cinquentenaire Park and various European cultural institutes in Brussels (Det danske Kulturinstut, Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes, Instituto Cervantes, Alliance française, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Finnish Cultural Institute and the British Council).
The European Language Year focuses on three key themes: 1) Europe will always be multilingual and that is what gives it its strength; 2) learning languages opens up many opportunities in both ones private and professional life; 3) learning languages is within everyone's reach, not just the elite. The European Commission has allocated nearly EUR 6 million in funding to 185 European, national, regional and local projects selected from over 1300 applications.