European Civil Society Platform for Multilingualism

MULTILINGUALISM IN THE EU: OUR ASSET & OUR COMMITMENT
Crucial for the future of Europe, for its economic development and political integration, the safekeeping of Europe’s rich linguistic and cultural resources is our aim and duty. From 2009 onwards the ECSPM has functioned in an advisory capacity to the European Commission on policy issues (2011 Report: www.poliglotti4.eu/docs/publications/)
The ECSPM views multilingualism as a means to cultural development, a product of quality education, a route to social cohesion, a facilitator to the mobility and employability of European citizens, and an instrument for prosperity. Thus, our 2015 resolution is for us to be more actively involved in advising and assisting the implementation EU policy, so as to maintain European linguistic and cultural diversity and to make sure that Member States respect the right of students to learn two languages in addition to their mother tongue (the 2+1 policy).
Appreciating the linguistic and cultural wealth of Europe
1. We respect the value of all official EU languages spoken by 500.7 million citizens. Whether these are the dominant or the marginalised languages of Europe, they are equally its constituent elements, as are the autochthonous or regional languages that nearly 40 million Europeans speak. They all embody the wealth of Europe’s linguistic heritage and they are proponents of its rich cultural array, evinced in the significant and culturally diverse artefacts of Europe –our artistic, literary, and scientific production– which we are committed to support and facilitate its visibility globally.
2. We appreciate the fact that multilingualism is synonymous with different ways of thinking and experiencing reality, resolving problems and conceiving novelty. In contrast with monolingualism, or ‘English-only policies’ that sustain single mindedness, multilingualism is consistent with tolerance and the valuation of difference. This is the reason that we help promote strategies of differentiated language learning projects in different EU Member States, the visibility of languages in the European media, and multilingual/multicultural academic environments.
3. We appreciate the languages of our immigrant communities. We view them as untapped resources in the EU, where the demand for language competences at all levels in the workforce is expanding globally and the range and nature of languages being taught is insufficient. We know that English is not enough and promote practices which make the most of the valuable resources to meet current and future demands in the global marketplace.
4. We recognise and support the right of immigrants, who are not proficient in the host language, to have access to basic public services in their own language or through interpretation/translation services. We are determined to promote the use of ICT supported programmes which can make information more easily accessible.
5. We believe in the right of immigrants to be helped to learn the host-country language as efficiently as possible, and to turn their bi- or tri-lingualism into an advantage rather than a handicap. We are determined to help share good practices in this area of education.
6. We support the cultivation of a plurilingual ethos of communication which fosters intercultural awareness and encourages intercultural dialogue, as we know that the EU markets have an accentuated need for a plurilingual workforce which will strengthen Europe’s economic development and give it a competitive edge. We are promoting cross-linguistic mediation, translanguaging and other forms of intercultural and interlinguistic exchanges.

Working towards improved language education in European schools
1. Given that foreign language literacy is acknowledged as one of the key competences in the 2020 European strategy to education for growth and employability, we concur with the 20 May 2014 Conclusions of the Council of the European Union that the ability of Europeans to communicate in two languages in addition to their mother tongue should be improved, and we intend to use our ECSPM networks to make this objective a priority of national education systems.
2. While Europeans have very positive attitudes towards language learning (Eurobarometer 2012) and a great deal of money and energy are being invested for foreign language education in EU Member States, the results are disappointing. The European Survey of Language Competence (ESLC 2012) shows that young Europeans’ foreign language skills are inadequate –though less in the first foreign language which is invariably English, than in the second foreign language, which is consistently one of the five ‘big’ languages of Europe. By developing and using valid tools to get reliable comparable language learning results across the national educational systems, the gap between demand and offer will become more visible. We intend to work towards this direction.
3. Having examined the results of various European projects (e.g., ESLC, Language Rich Europe, ELLiE, etc.) and a plethora of national studies, co-funded by the EU and individual Member States, that provide comparative data on foreign language skills and insights into good practices in language learning, we are determined to facilitate the dissemination of such information.
4. Comparative results of recent European studies have shown which social and educational contexts and conditions of language learning are favourable to the development of plurilingual competence (as defined in the Common European Framework of Reference, 2001), and we intend to collaborate with other European institutions, including the Council of Europe and the ECML, and to involve fully the European organisations we represent on this Platform to sensitize those responsible for decision-making in national educational systems about the usefulness of language learning for the development of plurilingual and intercultural communicative competences.

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No lobbyists with EP accreditations

None

Ms Kristina Cunningham (Head of Multilingualism Sector)

Ms Bessie (Vassiliki) Dendrinos (Dendrinou) (President)

III - Non-governmental organisations

Non-governmental organisations, platforms and networks and similar