Brussels, 31/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Jan Figel, who has hitherto been responsible for multilingual policy, congratulated the future Romanian Commissioner, Leonard Orban, who will be taking over the portfolio on 1 January 2007, assuring him of his assistance to prepare him for his new post over the next few weeks. Multilingualism is a new sphere that the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, decided to add to the existing portfolios when he set up his College of Commissioners two years ago, in order to place importance on linguistic diversity within the EU. “More than 200 European and non-European languages are spoken in the EU which will have, as from 1 January 2007, 23 official languages with the arrival of Romanian, Bulgarian and Irish. Languages are at the heart of the European identity, and the Commission's role in this area, when it comes to translating the EU's legislation, providing the necessary interpretation to thousands of meetings or encouraging the teaching of languages, is crucial”, Mr Figel stressed. The Slovakian Commissioner will keep the other dossiers for which he is responsible, namely education, training and culture.
In answer to questions on the powers that will be incumbent upon the future Commissioner, the Commission said the portfolio was not purely “administrative”. “Linguistic and cultural diversity are values that are embodied in the European Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is a policy area in itself, established by President Barroso in 2004 in order to recognise the importance of diversity”, said Pia Ahrenkilde on Tuesday. The Commission spokeswoman pointed out how important the work of institutions was in communicating with all European citizens in their own language. This, she said, has been a “real challenge” since enlargement. The Commissioner-designate will work with three directorates general on multilingualism, employing 3,400 persons making up 15% of the Commission's personnel, Ms Ahrenkilde said. In her view, making multilingualism a matter in itself separate from the education, training and culture portfolio is not an aberration but, on the contrary, quite normal. (il)