Strasbourg, 08/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - A report by Luca Copetti on "The Languages of Europe: Cultural Diversity and Democratic Guarantee" was the main theme of the conference organised last November by the European Law School of Treve and the Centre of European Studies in Strasbourg. Taking up the contribution made by Alain Fenet of the Université de Nantes on "Linguistic Diversity and European Construction", the report stressed the right of multilingualism within the European Union. Mr Fenet explained that the decision taken by the founding fathers to defend the right of each national language in the wording of treaties, was a wise decision, because it demonstrates that each State and people are equal in the collective enterprise of building the European Community. Mr Fenet asserted that unilingualism was proscriptive and any claim that English was a neutral and international language, was "an illusion" and that the English language itself was a means of transmitting culture. Mr Fenet explained that the culture transmitted by the different languages should not be run roughshod over by a neutral and international language. Without ignoring the practical problems engendered by multilingualism within the institutions of the EU, the author of the report suggested increasing the use of the different working languages. This would mean that debates at the European Parliament would continue to use all the official languages but interventions made by the different MEPs would only be interpreted into the working languages. According to Mr Fenet, it would be possible to retain a number of working languages depending on the needs of each institution, with possibly French, English and German used as working languages, together with the language of the European Union Presidency in the period of its office. (Luca.copetti@chello.be).