EDITO DE LA SEMAINE: From Euro-English to multilingualism
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Written by Philippe Portalier
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Friday, 06 October 2006
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The challenge of organising a political debate on a European level.
 EDITO - I have written this article in English as I would like the gist of its message to reach as large an audience as possible, although the subtleties of my native French language would have provided far more freedom to express my thoughts regarding language diversity.
As a matter of fact, without reasonable command of the English as a kind of modern Latin in today’s Europe, I wouldn’t be able to advise the 35 members from all 24 countries of the European trade federation for whom I work for. Neither would I be able to co-ordinate Newropeans’ network of voluntary translators. This highlights for me the main purpose of a language: it is about communication, about being able to reach out to others, not only within the immediate neighbourhood, but also outside of one’s usual living or working environment. For example, if languages were means of transports, English would be a plane, French, Spanish or German trains. Most of Europe’s other languages would be cars, and Basque, Catalan and local dialects bicycles, while Esperanto would probably look like Icarus’ wings, for it is an intellectual construction that will never fly. Because unlike Esperanto, spoken languages express the freedom of speech of groups that share an existing culture which is continuously adapted to best formulate relationships in a world which is constantly changing. To quote a Romanian proverb: “ Spune-mi câte limbi vorbesti, ca sà spun câte persoane esti” which means more or less “ How many languages you know, so many times you are human”. In such a world in which communication is dominated by television and the internet, linguistic diversity is the only way to promote territory-linked cultural diversity, and hence a diversity of collective experiments which can be of benefit to all [1]. This is why Newropeans, the trans-European political movement that will stand for the 2009 European elections proposes to promote pre-school teaching and life-long learning of several European languages [2]. Once Romania and Bulgaria have joined the existing 25 EU Member States on the 1st January 2007, the number of official languages will have grown to 23. The EU has set-up multilingualism as a horizontal policy to preserve language diversity and – they say – “ equality of chances for EU citizens to interact with the EU institutions in their languages”. The costs for this are about 359 million euros and about 16% of all EU institution staff will be devoted to linguistic work in 2007. If the importance of the language factor for the possibility of European democracy is often underestimated, it is because it is always considered from a Nation-State perspective. Euro-English may appear to have become the lingua franca of global trade but it is unlikely to ever become the lingua franca of European politics. And even if some day current political conflicts about EU official languages are eventually overcome, European political communication in Euro-English a minima will never reach the larger audiences; European citizens will still have as many difficulties to understand EU legislation and communication. And this is for a very simple reason: there are no political debates to date that involve citizens from all over Europe regarding EU politics, apart from a very small minority of EU experts that besieged Brussels’ conference rooms. As long as the EU model will be construed of the sum of 25 nationally rooted approaches to Europe, citizens will no better understand its decisions and policies, even if they are translated into all EU languages. With its both trans-European and multi-lingual communication policy, Newropeans pave the way to a new public communication that transcends the boundaries of the constrained national public debates. Its programme proposals are elaborated among and voted by EU citizens on an Intranet, currently in four languages (EN, FR, DE, ES), and thereafter communicated to the general public into 7 more languages to date. Thereby, Newropeans aims at bridging Europe’s democratic deficit by enabling citizens of the EU to share the same understanding of EU policies and further, by electing representatives into the European Parliament in 2009, to have a say in a decision-making process that none of their national political representatives can control alone anymore. I would like to convey here my deep gratitude to the network of voluntary translators that makes Newropeans’ multilingualism a reality. Although most of our team of 30 people are not professionals, they translate texts into their native language, but not only. What is more important is that most of them are also members of Newropeans. As such, voluntary translators can translate the spirit of consensus achieved among Europeans and communicate it in an understandable manner to their fellow citizens. Hence, they contribute to restoring the layman’s confidence into EU politics. Help us, because your family and friends deserve it! Philippe PortalierMember of Newropeans’ CD and Co-ordinator of Newropeans’ network of voluntary translators.
www.newropeans.eu
[1] See for instance the LINGO Study co-ordinated by Katerina Kolyva and Dorina Angelescu which gathers 50 examplary ways of motivating Europeans to learn languages {moscomment}
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 07 October 2006 )
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Non ce n'est pas une affiche de campagne en Turquie, mais bien celle du parti socialiste autrichien (SPÖ) pour les élections d'octobre prochain à Vienne. Après les affiches de campagne de Strache qui plaide pour le " pur sang viennois" c'est la course au populisme?
Wien-Wahl: Politiker sprechen türkisch: 200.000 Neoösterreicher Wähler haben Migrationshintergrund. Die Parteien buhlen um ihre Stimmen - gerne auch in einer Fremdsprache.( Kurier 25/08/2010)
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La deuxième rencontre du cycle
“LA DEMOCRATIE EN DANGER”,
consacrée à la Justice en Europe
Le lundi 13 septembre
de 19h30 à 22h00
Salons de l’Aveyron
17 Rue de l'Aubrac
75012 Paris
 A l’heure où les discours et les mesures sécuritaires et judiciaires se durcissent dans nombreux pays européens, où l’on sait les atteintes aux droits les plus élémentaires et aux principes fondamentaux des simples citoyens, quels traitements sont réservés à ceux qui tiennent les pouvoirs politiques, financiers, économiques entre leurs mains? Une conférence-débat organisée dans le cadre du cycle La démocratie en danger par Les Amis de Beppe Grillo à Paris et le NewropMag.
Intervenants: les députés européens Luigi De Magistris, Sonia Alfano et Rosario Crocetta ; Harald Greib, vice-président de Newropeans en charge des affaires des institutions européennes ; Eric Alt, magistrat, membre de l’association MEDEL (magistrats européens pour la démocratie et les libertés) et de l’association Anticor, et Corinne Lepage, députée européenne et ex Ministre de l’environnement, engagée dans la lutte contre la corruption politique et financière.
Parmi les sujets de discussion:
- L'infiltration des organisations criminelles et le vide législatif relatif en Europe
- Les récentes dépénalisations des crimes financiers et économiques en Italie, en France et leur traitement au sein des institutions européennes
- Présomption d'innocence ou de culpabilité? L'exemple de la “loi bâillon” sur les écoutes téléphoniques qui viole les recommandations de l’OSCE concernant l’emploi de sources et de matériels nécessaires aux investigations journalistiques au service de la démocratie.
Contacts:
Micaela Bracciaferri, Coordinatrice “Les Amis de Beppe Grillo à Paris »
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Marianne Ranke-Cormier, Rédactrice en chef du NewropMag
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