Linguistic diversity is a “European heritage”Raising the awareness of citizens about the importance of learning languages and celebrating the European cultural heritage of which languages are an integral part: these are the two main objectives enunciated by the European Commission as part of the programme of events leading up to the European Day of Languages scheduled for 26 September. Events at the European level (national events are also being organized by individual member states) began on 22 September with the first meeting in Brussels of the “Enterprises” platform for multilingualism in the economic field. A conference is being held in Luxembourg on the theme “Technologies at the service of translators” on 24 September”. Several different events are being planned for 25-26 September, including lectures, seminars and meetings with youth groups. Leonard Orban, European Commissioner for multilingualism, underlined a particular aspect: “Very young children are particularly gifted when it comes to learning languages. From a scientific point of view, everything seems to show that learning languages ought to begin as early as possible”. The Commission is therefore dedicating a conference in Brussels (on 24-25 September) to precocious learning. For further info: www.europa.eu/languages.Energy market: the position of ParliamentThe European Union should “operate at the international level with a common energy policy to ensure supplies to the whole of Europe and prevent future interruptions of gas”. With a view to defining shared policies in the sector, and overcoming the problems registered in previous years, for example as a result of disputes between Russia and its neighbouring countries, the European Parliament has sent a resolution on the energy market to the Commission. Adopted during the EP’s last plenary session, the resolution asks that “gas stockpiling capacity be increased” and “interconnections between networks be improved”. It also approves the funding of the infrastructural projects presented in the European Economic Recovery Plan (250 million euro). The priorities spelt out by the EP also include connections with new gas supplies from the Middle East and from the Caspian Sea region. The Nabucco project, according to the EP, will “help the Union to reduce its dependency on Russian supplies”. MEPs invite the Commission to exercise vigilance and take action against “hostile takeover bids by non-transparent foreign entities” in the internal energy market.Sustainable mobility, for higher quality citiesEuropean Mobility Week (16-22 September), which has just ended on a positive note, was aimed at promoting sustainable mobility to improve the quality of life in medium and large scale cities. Promoted by the EU, it involved 2000 cities with a wide variety of initiatives and enjoyed the participation of local authorities in 38 states. The theme of European Mobility Week 2009 – it is now in its eight year – was “improving the climate in our cities”. Specific actions were taken “at the local level to tackle climate change and improve the quality of life by promoting methods of transport as an alternative to the car, such as bicycles, going on foot and using public transport”. Stavros Dimas, EU Commission for the Environment, commented: “Cars produce a high percentage of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change and have a damaging impact on quality of life. It’s important that public authorities and citizens throughout the European Union should adopt less polluting methods of transport”. The more original initiatives included that of Almada, in Portugal, where citizens received free tickets for public transport in exchange for recyclable material.New web design for the Union’s portalA portal that’s easier to use to facilitate the access of citizens to information on the EU: to achieve this goal the European Union has proceeded to a “makeover” of its portal on the website www.europa.eu including “new methods for surfing, modern graphic design” and improvements “to simplify searches in all languages”. The EU portal is in fact one of the largest in the world with some six million pages: “For this reason it is not surprising that sometimes it seems a bit laborious to find a specific piece of information”, points out a press release of the Commission. “To make the entry pages more manageable, we have simplified their design, dividing them into six main sections defined on the basis of users’ needs”. So we find separate sections devoted to “Information on the EU”, “Your Life in the EU”, “Policies and Activities”, “How to Participate”, “Documentation Centre” and “Media Services”. “The official portal of the Union is in general the first port of call for those seeking information. Apart from providing information on EU institutions and legislation, the portal also explains how to move from one country to another, how to gain access to European funds, what are the main activities of the EU, and who are their beneficiaries”.
