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ISSA has become a member of the EU Civil Society Platform to promote multilingualism

08 Jan 2010

On 23 October 2009 the Multilingualism Policy Unit at the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission hosted the launch and first meeting of the new Civil Society Platform to promote multilingualism. The platform consists of non-governmental civil society organisations and media representatives; members were selected through an application process. Aija Tuna, ISSA Program Director, attended this meeting.

The aim of the platform is to create a forum for the exchange of best practices for civil society stakeholders, gathering relevant information from culture, non-formal and informal education and learning sectors, and the media to contribute to bringing multilingualism closer to citizens.

This structured dialogue should:

  • Complement existing consultation processes (such as online consultations, public hearings, etc);

  • Encourage various interested actors in language policy to work in a more trans-sectoral way and to better structure and organise themselves at EU level;

  • Help interested stakeholders to formulate recommendations with a view to contributing to the development of a multilingualism policy in Europe;

  • Provide opportunities for these recommendations to be presented to the European Commission and the Member States.

It was agreed that the civil society platform should concentrate its work on the three main objectives of the 2008 Communication:

  • raise awareness of the value and opportunities of the EU's linguistic diversity;

  • encourage the removal of barriers to intercultural dialogue and social inclusion;

  • achieve the Barcelona objective to communicate in two foreign languages.

The platform plans to provide input for an EU language conference in 2011 as well as to prepare recommendations for future planning processes.

The meeting started with a keynote speech by Commissioner for Multilingualism Mr. Leonard Orban. Mentioning that language is a part of cultural identity and recognizing languages as crucial bridges among cultures, he emphasized the importance of promoting multilingualism for social cohesion and intercultural dialogue in Europe. Other main messages emphasized following aspects:

  • Alongside support for migrants to learn the language of the host country as one of the priorities, migrants should also have the chance to learn and cultivate their own native language;

  • Media outlets and new technologies in particular have the potential to open channels for intercultural communication and dialogue;

  • Multilingualism policy includes all languages, official, regional, minority, and migrant languages;

  • Language learning is for all citizens at all times throughout their lives;

  • There is a link among prosperity, employability, and multilingualism;

Attention to early language learning is growing and the Commission is planning a public campaign to raise awareness of parents of young children regarding this topic. As has been learned well in business and by politicians, 'you can buy almost everything in English, but if you want to sell - it is better to learn the language of your potential customer.'

Commissioner Orban reminded participants that the Commission will act in the role of facilitator and looks forward to the creative, successful, and independent work of the platform in supporting an open method of coordination which involves all governments.

The Director for Culture, Multilingualism, and Communication Vladimir Sucha described the purpose of the platform, emphasizing that the platform must be run by its members, as the networks will bring their members' voices to the EC; the platform should come up with proposals by September 2010 in order to influence the decision-making process at open method coordination-OMC and the EU level and the design of the financial instruments (new generation of funding programmes 2014-2020); in this regard the networks' potentials and inputs are very important.

During the meeting, Mr. Uwe Mohr from EUNIC was unanimously elected to serve as Chairman of the Platform.

After in-depth discussion three working groups were established:

  1. education (including language learning, minority languages, lesser used languages, early language learning, motivation, and promotion); Chair: Cor van der Meer (Mercator)

  2. linguistic diversity and social inclusion (minorities, host country language learning, intercultural dialogue); Chairs: Miguel Ángel Martín Ramos (Yuste) and Davyth Hicks (EBLUL)

  3. translation and terminology (literary translation, subtitling, culture, terminology); Chairs: Peter Bergsma (RECIT), Martin de Haan (CEATL), Myriam Diocaretz (European Writers’ Council)

ISSA applied to contribute to the work of the first and second groups offering the network’s resources and experience in promoting early literacy, second language learning, diversity, inclusion, and social justice.

The participation of ISSA in such a platform is crucial, as it promotes the importance of language policies from the point of view of early years and vulnerable groups, as well as bringing in expertise from new member countries. From the ISSA members’ point of view, this is another wonderful opportunity to promote our goals and expertise as well as to learn about other approaches and resources, experience in campaigning, information on trends and developments, and building bases for new potential partnerships at the national and European levels and beyond.

It is planned that members of the Platform will meet twice in 2010 with representatives from the Commission and will work in the groups using a virtual platform in order to share information and prepare recommendations for the Commission.

Brief information and the list of the members of the Platform can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/news/news3686_en.htm

Suggestion for further reading:

A Rewarding Challenge. How the multiplicity of languages could strengthen Europe. Proposals from the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Commission. Brussels, 2008 http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/maalouf/report_en.pdf

Prepared by Aija Tuna

 

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