Brussels, 27/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - Hearings with the Romanian and Bulgarian Commissioners Designate Leonard Orban (multilingualism) and Meglena Kuneva (consumer protection) were held on Monday. The vote approving the nomination of the two future Commissioners is scheduled for the plenary session of 11-14 December. The two new Commissioners will take up their office on 1st January 2007.
Addressing members of the culture/education and constitutional affairs committees, Leonard Orban, former Romanian chief negotiator in the accession talks, above all argued the importance of his portfolio, multilingualism, against all those, including the EP, who questioned the “lightness” of his area of responsibility. Multilingualism was “crucial” to the success of European integration, and also for inter-cultural dialogue within the EU, the social dimension of Europe (“someone who has several languages has more chance of finding employment and will also contribute to integration and social cohesion”) and the dialogue that European institutions have with citizens who, after successive EU enlargements, feel “their regional, cultural and linguistic identity threatened”; Multilingualism was also “essential” for the European economy and the EU's goal of implementing the Lisbon Agenda for growth and competitiveness, he emphasised: “To make the European Union into a competitive and innovative society, multilingual people are required”.
“I am absolutely convinced that multilingualism will have to become an integral part of all European Union policies and programmes,” said Mr Orban, who, apart from a short introduction in French and English, spoke exclusively in Romanian, even in response to MEPs' questions. The Commissioner Designate, who stressed that he was going to continue the “impressive” work of Commissioner Figel, also presented some initiatives which he intends to take if his appointment is confirmed: organising a ministerial conference before the end of 2007 to prepare the new action plan for multilingualism which will be presented in 2008, consideration of the mobility of languages teachers in the EU, organising a conference with European firms to see how multilingualism measures can contribute to reaching the Lisbon goals, promoting the sub-titling of films, launching a translation competition for EU schools to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in March 2007, and more.
During the long question and answer session, Mr Orban often took refuge behind Member States' “exclusive competence”, for example, when MEPs questioned him on the possibility of increasing the number of official EU languages (there are currently 20, but this number will rise to 23 with Romanian, Bulgarian and Gaelic) or on respect for the linguistic rights of minorities living in member countries. “Within the framework of European projects and programmes, I want to support all the languages spoken in the European Union, not only the official languages,” he said, but how minorities' linguistic rights were administered or the use of languages in teaching in Member States lay within the exclusive competence of national governments, he went on, stating that he did not wish to “exceed his responsibility” and indicating that he did not favour European legislation on this issue.
Mr Orban's caution did not please everyone, with several MEPs wanting the future Commissioner to play a more active role, particularly with regard to the defence of the linguistic rights of minorities and the promotion of regional languages. “We want you, within the Commission, to be a defender of multilingualism and of the linguistic rights of other minorities, such as those of the Roma for example, and not simply someone who respects the competences of Member States,” said Austrian Hannes Swoboda (PES), for example. “I will not hesitate to have this dialogue with minorities and Member States, but strictly under the terms of my competence and those of Member States,” Mr Orban responded.
EUROPE will report on MS Kuneva's hearing tomorrow. (hb)