Doc. 8487

18 August 1999

Encouraging multilingualism in Europe

Motion for a recommendation

presented by Mr Goulet and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those members who have signed it

1.       The Assembly emphasises the following:

i.       Europe must be a reality for everyone. To be able to draw up shared projects and bring them to fruition, people must be able to understand one another. By encouraging the study of foreign languages from the earliest age, the Council of Europe can help to awaken in tomorrow's Europeans the spirit of openness manifested by its successful Youth Assembly in April 1999;

ii.       In view of its efforts to promote inter-regional co-operation, the Council of Europe cannot fail to play a central part in an activity that is decisive for the future by simply involving each of its members in an experimental programme of support for multilingualism that will help to build a Europe of mutual exchanges and enhancement based on the continent's different languages; this would avert the danger of cultural impoverishment inherent in the use of a single language as well as that of perpetuating a Babel of mutual incomprehension inconducive to any progress of the exchanges facilitated by the Internet;

iii.       Both the Council of Europe's Statute and the Assembly's Rules of Procedure stipulate that French shall be one of the organisation's two official languages, alongside English;

iv.       The accession of new members and the participation of observer states, as well as the development of a policy of inter-regional co-operation, provide a basis for the proliferation of contacts which, however desirable, present the risk of English being used as the sole common linguistic denominator;

v.       Like other European languages, French is the vehicle for a culture and a history extending well beyond the frontiers of its area of origin, constituting a heritage that should not be allowed to wither but, on the contrary, should be developed and made available to all European citizens;

vi.       Many national and international programmes are helping to develop efforts to support the study of European languages, as the French-speaking countries are doing in the case of the French language; however, such efforts should now be incorporated once and for all into a multilingual framework;

vii.       The development of Internet networks will permit a proliferation of transfrontier exchanges;

viii.       However, school curricula, particularly in primary education, do not always accord foreign languages their proper place;

ix.       An experimental programme might therefore be launched under the auspices of the Council of Europe.

2.       The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

i.       encourage, with the assistance of the relevant Secretariat departments, the establishment of a programme for supporting the introduction of bilingual or multilingual teaching classes, where it would be obligatory to study at least two European languages, as well as the monitoring of these activities;

ii.       organise teacher exchanges between twinned towns to enable, for example, young French persons to learn German, Russian, Spanish, Italian or Polish in their normal school environment from the earliest age;

iii.       affirm the reciprocal nature of these exchanges by basing them on the network of twinned towns, which could offer a more flexible and less restrictive organisational framework than the various government departments concerned, as well as on international associations of language teachers;

iv.       map out a co-ordinated approach by member states to this question;

v.       encourage individual initiatives between the different representatives of member states and make available to them within the Council of Europe's Secretariat, on an experimental basis, a register for recording applications and offers to participate in this programme.

Signed:¹

Goulet, France, EDG

Bartoš, Czech Republic, EDG

Belohorská, Slovakia, EDG

Hoegh, Norway, EDG

Hornung, Germany, EPP/CD

Keltošová, Slovakia, EDG

Micheloyiannis, Greece, SOC

Saakashvili, Georgia, EDG

Schreiner, France, EDG

Sinka, Latvia, EDG

Steolea, Romania, EDG

Tkác, Slovakia, EDG

Turini, Italy, EDG

Zingeris, Lithuania, EDG

______________

¹       SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People's Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR: Liberal, Democratic and Reformer's Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: Not belonging to a political group of the Assembly