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Appendix C - Introduction to the 2005 Commission Communication ‘A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Patrick Stevenson
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
Jenny Carl
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

Kol'ko jazykov vieš, tol'kokrát si èlovekom.

The more languages you know, the more of a person you are.

(Slovak proverb)

Introduction

For the first time, the portfolio of a European Commissioner explicitly includes responsibility for multilingualism. This document is the first Commission Communication to explore this policy area. It complements the Commission's current initiative to improve communication between European citizens and the institutions that serve them. It also:

  • reaffirms the Commission's commitment to multilingualism in the European Union;

  • sets out the Commission's strategy for promoting multilingualism in European society, in the economy and in the Commission itself; and

  • proposes a number of specific actions stemming from this strategic framework.

Multilingualism and European values

The European Union is founded on ‘unity in diversity’: diversity of cultures, customs and beliefs – and of languages. Besides the 201 official languages of the Union, there are 60 or so other indigenous languages and scores of non-indigenous languages spoken by migrant communities.

It is this diversity that makes the European Union what it is: not a ‘melting pot’ in which differences are rendered down, but a common home in which diversity is celebrated, and where our many mother tongues are a source of wealth and a bridge to greater solidarity and mutual understanding.

Type
Chapter
Information
Language and Social Change in Central Europe
Discourses on Policy, Identity and the German Language
, pp. 214 - 215
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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