Fuente: © European Parliament
http://www.europarl.eu.int/

EU: Parliament welcomes strategy for multilingualism

/noticias.info/ According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, only half of the EU citizens say they can hold a conversation in a second language apart from their mother tongue. Therefore, Parliament welcomed the Commission's proposals for a new Framework Strategy to foster the knowledge of languages and to take cultural and socio-economic advantage of it.

In adopting a own-initiative report by Bernat Joan i Mari (Greens/EFA, ES) by 537 votes in favour to 50 against and 59 abstentions, MEPs said that it was essential to improve the quality, effectiveness and accessibility of the education and training systems in the EU by promoting foreign language learning.

At present, there was a lack of detailed and reliable data and appropriate indicators. They, therefore, welcomed the proposal for a European Indicator of Language Competence which should include all official EU languages and could be extended beyond the five widely-spoken languages, in order to gain a true picture of language competence. But it was also believed that proposals for multilingualism should not be limited to the main official Member State languages.

The rapporteur and many other MEPs took the view that the rights of the 46 millions EU citizens who speak lesser used languages like Gaelic, Welsh, Frisian, Catalan or Basque should be improved. Member State language plans should include these languages and the possibility for interested adults to learn these languages should be examined.

Parliament took the view that the widest opportunities should be provided for migrants to learn the language(s) of their host countries. Particular attention should also be given to promote language learning for people in disadvantaged and difficult circumstances and for people with disabilities. Language acquisition should be an essential element in the lifelong learning programme.

Furthermore, there was large support for the proposals to develop language-related professions and industries. All European languages will need new technologies such as speech processing, voice recognition as well as work on terminology, developing language teaching, certification ands testing. MEPs feared that otherwise lesser-used languages will left behind with their linguistic social space taken over by the more widely spoken languages.

The Commission's commitment to give citizens access to EU legislation, procedures and information in their languages was also fully supported. This would be an important step in closing the gap between the EU and many of his citizens. This communication in the national languages should be improved, regardless of whether the language in question has official status at Member State or EU level.

Finally, the European institutions and bodies were called on to cooperate closely with the Council of Europe in the protection of linguistic diversity and language learning, and to build on its experience in the area of language policy (such as the Charter for Regional and Minority Languages). The European Ombudsman was called on to pay particular attention to guaranteeing respect for the linguistic rights of European citizens, and to provide more ways of resolving EU language conflict situations.
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