SPEECH/07/448

Leonard Orban

Commissioner responsible for multilingualism




"Languages are a bridge for intercultural dialogue"

The Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue
Brussels, 29 June 2007

Dear friends, good morning. Thank you for having accepted my invitation to be part of this Group and to attend this meeting today.

I feel truly honoured to be welcoming you to Brussels on behalf of the Commission; I know that you will bring all your intellectual weight and your integrity to bear on these explorations about putting languages at the service of intercultural dialogue among Europe's communities.

Together, you bring a rich selection of Europe's languages to this room – each of you may speak in your own language, thanks to our interpreters. I will do my best not to bring another language into the discussion – the language of 'Commission-speak', or 'langue de bois' as our francophone friends call it. But, before handing over to Amin Malouf in the chair, I want to take a few moments to set out the reasons for getting this group together, and how it relates to what we hope to achieve for, and with, languages in Europe.

You know, as writers, and as thinkers, better than I do: the languages we speak are an inseparable part of who we are. They are how we construct our culture – our writings, our thoughts, our world-view. They define us as individuals, but also as part of a community. We have an enormous wealth of languages in today's European Union. I want to turn this linguistic diversity, this richness, into something that unites us in Europe as members of a large community, a badge of Europeanness, if you like.

Learning languages, understanding other languages, builds bridges between people, between communities and cultures. Of course, speaking someone's languages doesn't mean we solve all our problems. But it is a window, a way of appreciating that another point of view, another perspective, exists. And that's an essential starting point to understanding each other better.

Today's Europe of 27 is truly multicultural, truly diverse – the result of enlargements, of greater and easier movement between countries, of globalisation and migration. This Europe is not a melting pot where differences are eradicated. It is a celebration of diversity. 'Unity in diversity' as the Union motto puts it. This diversity is not a threat – if anything, it's an antidote to stagnancy and torpor. It's an opportunity to be curious, to learn, to confront, to appreciate.

But it is not necessarily a comfortable experience for everyone, neither for the 'new' individuals or communities who have to make sense of a new environment, nor for those who may feel shuffled around in their habitual communities, to make room for all. There is therefore a pressing need to develop our intercultural skills, to promote dialogue between cultures, to uncover the bedrock of solidarity and respect lying underneath.

Next year we hold the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. We want to touch people, particularly young people living in the Union, to raise awareness that engaging with other cultures in everyday life is a way of opening up to the world, of opening up new dimensions within ourselves. I am convinced that an appreciation of our languages and of multilingualism can really help to carry this year. That we can use languages as a vector for transforming our multi-cultural societies into truly intercultural ones that are based on respect, openness and tolerance.

Improving intercultural dialogue in daily life necessarily embraces the dimension of religious beliefs and philosophical convictions: these are a vital part of how we create our individual and collective identity. Thus, the issue of inter-religious dialogue is also important for us.

You will have a free hand in this group. But you can give the Commission valuable advice on how best to show how languages, and the cultural dimensions of languages, can help us access other cultures and create an inclusive society in Europe.

Your advice will also give food for thought for my long-term aim: through learning languages, to consolidate a sense of European identity, a European citizenship, alongside our other identities – self, regional, national.

This brings me to my overall plans for multilingualism.

I am preparing a new strategy on multilingualism for next year, which will centre round three main objectives. The first I have just spoken of, and it's why we are here today - promoting the cultural dimension of languages to build inclusive societies and develop intercultural dialogue. I intend to promote the learning of all languages present in the European Union, including the languages of migrants.

Secondly, multilingualism not only brings personal benefits. It also boosts Europe's competitiveness, opening up markets, and creating more jobs, and giving citizens better job opportunities and the chance to move around Europe, whether to work or to study. I will work with business, to help them identify how to build up their language capacities to enter new markets, and to improve job-satisfaction.

Thirdly, I will use languages to create a European space for dialogue with the citizens, to make sure that every one can communicate with the institutions in their language, that the Community legislation is available to everyone in their languages.

When talking about a strategy for languages, it is of course important to remember that Member States are primarily responsible for the content and organization of their education systems and for their cultural and linguistic diversity. However, the European Union works closely with national authorities, encouraging them to move forward and exchange ideas and knowledge on shared objectives. Language-learning is an obvious candidate for this approach: by its very nature it calls for interchange, and there is a great deal to learn from sharing experiences.

We invited Member States to draw up national plans with clear objectives for language teaching at all stages of education, and for valuing linguistic diversity: this would include opportunities for migrants to learn the host country language as well as for the teaching of migrant languages. A considerable number of Member States have already sent us their national plans.

Member States have also put together national strategies for the year of intercultural dialogue. In line with where we think the need is greatest, many of them single out young people, and propose media or educational events.

As well as working with the national authorities, we also run programmes to involve our citizens, our young people, in Europe. We do it through study periods abroad, through exchanges, through projects with people from other countries, other cultures within Europe and beyond. (Erasmus, Youth in Action, Europe for Citizens...) This year and next, we will prioritize projects that develop intercultural links in all these programmes.

To finish, let me come back to what I hope this group will achieve. Your input is valuable not least because it is different! You have a vantage point that is independent, and no doubt different from one to the other. You have vast personal experience of living with different cultures, of reflecting on culture and multiculturalism. I look forward with great expectation to your proposals and recommendations for how languages can foster intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding in the European Union.

I also would like to have your advice on how to define a framework for activities after 2008 in order to strengthen integration by encouraging multilingual intellectual discussion in Europe.

I thank you again for your presence. In front of such a group of prestigious intellectuals coming from all over Europe, I can not but feel confident about the conclusions of your debate through the three meetings in Brussels.

It is now my pleasure to give the floor to Mr Amin Maalouf, a renowned writer with both Lebanese and French nationalities, author of a dozen books translated in forty languages. I am very grateful to him for having agreed to chair this group. Mr Maalouf, please, the floor is yours.