09/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - Forza Italia MEP Alfredo Antoniozzi has said in a press release that “European Commission sources have told me informally that Italy will be part of the group of the wise appointed by Commissioner Figel to lay the foundations for the EU linguistic policy”. This group will be small (the Commission wants only a maximum of eleven wise men and/or women), he says, adding that “Italy will be represented alongside the other major countries, with a well-known defender of our language, whose name I prefer not to reveal for the moment”. Welcoming the fact that “Spain, which is an ally in this battle, will also be represented” within the group of the wise, Mr Antoniozzi says that this “shows that the EU has taken note of the fact that Italian should be respected and be one of the working languages laid down by the new multilingualism policy”.