Financiarul

A meeting on the establishment of a new platform of the civil society took place on Friday in Brussels. Its main objective is to promote a permanent dialogue between the Commission and the civil society about the various aspects of the policies entailed by the field of multilingualism.

Among the members of the platform are representatives of education, culture, media and other organisations of the civil society, such as the Club of Madrid and Yuste Foundation.

‘The importance of knowing several languages for making social cohesion and outcome barriers from the way of integration cannot be pointed out enough,’ said European Commissioner for multilingualism Leonard Orban on the occasion of the release of the platform.

The civil society’s platform for the promotion of multilingualis m will be a forum, devoted to the exchanges of best practices devoted to the media, cultural organisations and those involved in the processes of non-formal and informal education. The goal is to encourage public debate as regards the best ways to promote the wide scale use of various languages.

The platform’s activity targets mainly groups who give up school, young people, old people and immigrants.
The platform will develop proposals that will be examined by the national governments within their cooperation within their cooperation in field of multilingualism in the field of education and professional upgrade.

On September 22, 2009, the European Commission established a similar thematic forum devoted to commercial companies. The platform of commercial companies devoted to multilingualism involves the community of commercial companies, social; partners, commercial organisation, chambers of commerce, trade promotion organisations, schools and educational authorities.

The importance of knowing several languages for the social cohesion and for outcoming barriers from the way of integration is an issue under the careful scrutiny of the European Commission. The communication on multilingualism in 2008 appealed to the set-up of a platform of the civil society able to promote multilingualism with a view to streamlining the intercultural dialogue.

In the context of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009, the European Commission stressed the way in which knowing several languages may contribute to the rise in social and personal welfare.

Members of the civil society’s platform for the promotion of multilingualism are Youth for Understanding Federation of European Publishers, RECIT (European Network of the Literary Translators’ International Centre), ACT (Association of Commercial Television in Europe), Culture link network, Literature Across Frontiers, EFIL (European Federation for Intercultural Learning), CEATL (European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations), Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE), Yuste (European Academy of Yuste Foundation), FUEV (Foderalistische Union Europaischer Volksgruppen), European Writers’ Council, EAEA (European Association for the Education of Adults), CEPI (European Coordination of Independent Producers), European Theatre Convention, EBLUL (Eurolang Brussels), ECA (European Council of artists), ALTE (European Projects Office), EEU (Europa Esperanto-Unio), office of Brussels of the Club of Madrid, European Association for Terminology , EfVET (European Forum of Technical and Vocational Education and Training), EUROCLIO – European Association of History Educators, EUNIC Brussels, ISSA (International Step by Step Association), Mercator Network of Language Diversity Centres, ECSWE (European Council Steiner Waldorf Schools) and EFNIL (European Federation of National Institutions for Language).