ABTTF attended the Annual NPLD Conference 2013

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated in the annual NPLD (Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity) Conference organised by Swedish Cultural Foundation on 21 February 2013. The full day conference given under the premises of the Delegation to the EU of the Government of Catalonia was attended by ABTTF Brussels Representation Office.

The main subject of the conference was to share best practices and develop expertise in the way of promoting linguistic diversity in Europe while preventing the extinction of the endangered European languages. Jannewietske de Vries, the Chairwoman of NPLD expressed that English is not and should not be the sufficient language to communicate in a globalised world. At this point, de Vries called on the EU to adapt and integrate the other languages and the European linguistic diversity into the EU 2020 Strategy. De Vries suggested that to this end developing a trilingual education system, including the minority language, the language of the majority and a global one, i.e. English, is a requirement.

The EU Programme for education, training, youth and sport “Erasmus for all” will be instrumental in promoting the European Linguistic Diversity

Pierre Mairesse, Director at the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission expressed support to NPLD’s bid for linguistic diversity in Europe and said “the EC’s commitment to Erasmus for All is not only to teach and promote the international languages. On the contrary, it will be to encourage learning minority languages”. Mairesse, furthermore referred to Canadian education system as for its success in full integration of bilingualism in Quebec. Taking the Canadian example as a best practice, the language diversity will contribute to the “mobility and jobs” strategy of the EU while being an effective tool in the decrease of unemployment rates in Europe.

MEP François Alfonsi released his work on European linguistic diversity

The Co-chair of the European Parliament Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages François Alfonsi presented his progressive study since 2011 on endangered languages in Europe and called for the support of the conference participants. Following the adoption of the National Minorities’ Protection Act in Finland under the supervision of the Nobel Prize owner Finnish ex-President Martti Ahtisaari, Alfonsi has been preparing an own initiative report in cooperation with other MEPs and European peace leaders. After securing sufficient support from the EP, the report will be submitted to the European Commission as a Roadmap towards linguistic diversity in Europe.

The Hungarian MEP Kinga Gal confirmed the significance of the linguistic diversity and protecting the minority languages by stating that supporting linguistic minorities is not a luxury but a life insurance. Yet, Gal did not refrain from expressing her disappointment of Europe neglecting the linguistic minorities by laying out previous initiatives on language diversity in 2003 which unfortunately did not result in positive outcomes. Regardless of previous resentments, Gal expressed readiness to support and contribute to integrate learning of minority languages to the European education system in line with the fully sustained political support to the European Citizen Initiative in force since 1 April 2012 and the Erasmus for All programme of the European Commission.