Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-27-Speech-4-048"
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"en.20060427.3.4-048"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, it is with pleasure that I congratulate the rapporteur on the completion of this much-needed report.
In my homeland of Estonia, widespread literacy has been considered to be elementary since the times of the Hanseatic League. Every merchant’s apprentice was expected to be fluent in the four local languages. This meant that in addition to one’s own language, one had to be able to speak the languages of the three main trading partners. The report rightly claims that language proficiency is an important precondition for citizens of the European Union to be able to enjoy the fundamental freedoms of the Union. Because services make up 70% of the volume of our economy, communication skills are of great importance in economic growth.
It is not likely, however, that the Barcelona objective will be achieved at the present level of effort, because the acquisition of two languages in addition to one’s mother tongue is very time-consuming and difficult. Only a very few people do so without a definite goal. The Member States should effectively motivate their citizens, and also each other’s citizens, for instance by fully implementing free movement of labour.
The European language proficiency indicator is, however, primarily important for motivating the Member States’ own citizens in creating a certain comparative and competitive advantage. It would be dangerous for both Europe, and for language itself, to be limited to only one universal language. This would cause language to be torn out of the ground without its roots. For instance, language professors from Cambridge have difficulty understanding supposedly English-language texts that come from Brussels.
For this reason, I would particularly like to emphasise that not only language proficiency, but also the cultures connected with those languages should be promoted on the European level. Unfortunately I am only able to speak in Estonian, my mother tongue, at every tenth session of the European Parliament’s Cultural and Educational Commission – what an irony in a multicultural Europe.
I hope this report helps to launch a much-needed programme for the promotion of multilingualism in Europe. Thank you."@en1
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