Part of the right-wing agenda at the recent mid-terms was to exploit the race card by disguising it as a question of "immigration" or "language", with the clear target of both being the growing visibility of Hispanic speakers. The question is not going to go away with the likelihood that more referendum questions will be put on ballots next year.
A different culture but the responses of the Commissioner Designate from Romania at his confirmation hearing in the European Parliament has some relevance to the debate in the USA. Part of his response emphasized the advantages that having a multilingual population has for businesses. As important in my view and in the European context is the vital contribution a nurturing view towards minority languages has in progressing the rights of the people who speak them.
A little background first, the European Parliament (EP/PE) is the legislative arm of the EU as opposed to the (Ministerial) Council which is the "executive" and the Commission which is the administrative arm. That is not quite an accurate description but is useful shorthand. Each member country nominates a Commissioner. Usually the whole Commission is approved but this year special arrangements have been made to separately approve the nominees from the two countries that should acceed to the Union in January.
Leonard Orban is the nominee from Romania who will have responsibility for Multilingualism on the Commission. On Monday he appeared before the EP/PE's Culture and Education Committe for three hours as part of his confirmation anda summary of the hearing is now on the EP/PE web site.
Highly relevant for a country that is increasingly worried about competition from other countries in its traditional markets (ie the USA) are his comments about multiculturalism and business.
Multilingualism was good for business, the Commissioner-designate told MEPs: "At first sight, one single language might appear easier to manage [... but] multilingualism can also give any industry a competitive advantage if it helps them to tap local markets and create new products which also cater for multilingualism."
He added that "our efforts to support multilingualism are not limited to EU languages; we are also encouraging training in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Turkish and Russian". Mr Orban said he would also aim to improve language teaching and work for the creation of a Business Forum on Multilingualism and to make the media and new communication technologies more language-friendly.
In other words, looking outwards and speaking to people in their own language helps you sell things - even big ideas like "Liberdy" Mr Bush. The different culture towards multilingualism within the EU is summed up in his comment which preceeded this in the report.
Europe's linguistic and cultural diversity is a source of richness which also needs to be nurtured and promoted
As a sideline, there was an interesting if somewhat esoteric discussion on gender equality and languages.For example in official documents "Mme la secrétaire générale" is replacing "Mme le secrétaire général" in French, and "chairperson" replacing "chairman" in English.
The more important was a discussion on the role that the EU approach to multilingualism is having on the rights of ethnic and linguistic minorities in the member states. Expansion to 27 is giving Europe the chance to right an historic wrong that had been too long outstanding, namely the recognition of the rights of the Roma and Sinti. Like the Jews, they were the subject of the full rigour of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Unlike the Jews there was no promised land for them. Most returned to their countries of origin, which frequently were behind the Iron Curtain (although not exclusively and their bad treatment was and is by no means restricted to those countries). Rather too frequently the Roma and Sinti were regarded as Untermensch. This was frequently instituionalised in such things as education where tuition was only in the main language. (Again this is by no means exclusive to these minorities or countries - historically Welsh was suppressed) In some of the old Eastern Europe this was even institutionalised with the children being catagorised as educationally sub normal because of their language and then being placed in special schools. This reinforced the disengagement from education and the poor employment prospects of those who went through the system.
Orban's own country was one of those with a significant Roma minority although there is also a Hungarian speaking minority. Naturally some of the Parliamentarians' questions focussed on his atitudes to the problems in Romania. To the questioning he responded:
The Roma minority is a very important issue, it needs a special attention [...] I am strongly supporting their integration into the society - access to education, employment, housing, etc", Mr Orban said, adding that "My activity will follow the direction of protecting all languages within the EU, including the languages of minorities," acting in line with the treaties. "I will not hesitate to establish a dialogue with the Roma minority or other minorities - within the competences I will have, if confirmed, established by (European Commission) President Barroso."
If nothing else the expansion exercise has focussed the Parliament's attention on the needs of linguistic minorities and it is significant that Orban had to make all the right sounds. These were however constrained by the divisions of competence within the EU which is somewhat akin to "States rights" in the USA, hence the reference in the link to "different models and different standards". While there is an overall EU policy of promoting minority languages and making schemes and funding available, the individual countries are responsible for the exact legislation and delivery of the policy. Here Orban rather disappointingly retreated behind the collective responsibility of the Commission to comply with political decisions;
Mr Orban responded each time that he supported the official position of the European Commission, and that protection of language rights was a matter for the Member States: "When it comes to language rights, I am not in favour of adopting legislation at European level to be imposed on Member States", he added.