Brussels, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission on Tuesday adopted a communication on multilingualism, the first of its kind. Under the slogan “The more languages you know, the more of a person you are”, the communication sheds light on the various facets of Commission policy on multilingualism and presents a new framework strategy based on specific proposed actions in three separate areas: society, the economy and relations with citizens. The Commission, which inaugurated a new internet portal dedicated to languages and consultable in the 20 EU official languages (http: //europa.eu.int/languages) for the occasion, is also inviting the Member States to play an active role in promoting the teaching, learning and use of languages. According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, half of the Union's citizens say that they are capable of holding a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue, but there are huge differences from one Member State to another, stressed Commissioner Jan Figel, who is specifically responsible for multilingualism. He points out that in some countries, the rate is only 30% of the population: “that is the problem for the Member States, they need to invest more in language-learning”, he commented. Annually, through the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes, the Commission invests some 30 million euros in actions such as training, student and teacher mobility and financing class exchanges to promote and develop diversity and language skills. Also stressing the importance of language skills for worker mobility and the competitiveness of the Union's economy, the Commission announced that it will publish next year an impact assessment of the dearth of language skills on the European economy. They also think that there is a need to do more to strengthen the role of the language industry, which represents a turnover of several million euros and continues to develop in the EU. Languages are also important for relations between citizens and institutions. In order to give citizens better access to information about the EU in their own language, particularly concerning legislation, procedures and policies, the Commission is planning to strengthen the multilingualism of its many websites via the creation of an internal network to monitor the consistency of the linguistic practices of its services, and also to establish a proactive multilingual communication policy to accompany its more general initiative to improve communication with European citizens and specific groups (journalists, the language sector, schools and universities). In terms of actions to be taken at national level, the Commission is proposing the adoption of action plans for multilingualism, improving the training for language teachers, mobilising the resources necessary for language learning from the youngest possible age and strengthening subject teaching through the integration of a foreign language.
Recalling that the European Council of Barcelona in 2002 adopted conclusions underscoring the need to promote the teaching of at least two foreign languages from the earliest possible age, the Commission is asking the Member States to review their language teaching programmes in universities. The Commission is also planning the creation of a high level group on multilingualism composed of independent experts which will help analyse progress made in the Member States. It also announced that a ministerial conference on multilingualism will be held soon, allowing the Member States to take stock of their progress.