The Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism welcomes its new members and starts its action

The plenary meeting of the Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism took place in Brussels on the 8 March 2013. It was chaired as always by Uwe Mohr, Head of Language Department, from Goethe Institute.
The meeting started with an interesting update about the state of arts of Multilingualism policy at the European level by Pierre Mairesse, Director of the Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) of the European Commission.
- The fact that the Multilingualism Unit has been merged with the Skills and Qualifications Unit as from January 2013 will not undermine the Commission's commitment to Multilingualism, but instead enhance it, he believes.
The platform´s members were then welcomed by Kristina Cunningham, Head of Sector (DG EAC) and had the opportunity to discuss with her the concerted reaction from the Platform to the Rethinking Education package, including the Staff Working Document on language competences for employability, mobility and growth.
Afterward, Sonia Perissini (DG EAC) informed the platform about the latest developments of the new programme for education and training, youth and sports (Erasmus for all/YES Europe) and the opportunities it will bring to the European citizens in learning languages and to the Civil Society in fostering multilingualism. She explained the types of mobility schemes foreseen by the Commission's proposal.
- Multilingualism will be fundamental in helping European citizens to benefit from those opportunities, Ms Perissini said. Read more...