ABSTRACT
Having regard to: (1) The Council Resolution of 31 March 1995 on improving and
diversifying language learning and teaching within the education systems of the European Union, according to which ‘pupils should, as a general rule, have the opportunity of learning two languages of the Union other than their mother tongue(s)’;
(1a) The responsibility of Member States for the content of teaching and the organisation of education systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity;
(2) The Commission’s 1995 White Paper ‘Teaching and learning: Towards the learning society’;
(3) The Council conclusions of 12 June 1995 on linguistic diversity and multilingualism in the European Union;
(4) The Council Resolution of 16 December 1997 on the early teaching of European Union languages;
(5) The Presidency conclusions of the Lisbon European Council of 23 and 24 March 2000, which include foreign languages within a European framework for the definition of basic skills;
(6) The Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000 establishing the European Year of Languages 2001;
(7) Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 7 December 2000, welcomed by the Nice European Council, which states that the Union shall respect cultural, religious and linguistic diversity;
(8) The Resolution of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the
Council, of 14 December 2000 concerning an Action Plan for Mobility which was approved by the Nice European Council;
(8a) The Council Decision of 19 January 2001 on Guidelines for Member States’ employment policies for the year 2001 and in particular the horizontal objective concerning lifelong learning;
(9) The Report of the Education Council of 12 February 2001 on the concrete future objectives of education and training systems which was submitted to the Stockholm European Council and which explicitly includes improving foreign language learning as one of its objectives, and the Council conclusions of 28 May 2001 on the follow-up to be given to the Report;
(10) The Commission’s 2000 Memorandum on lifelong learning that has given an impetus to a broad discussion, both at European level and in the Member States, on how to implement broad and coherent strategies for lifelong learning, inter alia in the field of language learning;
(11) The Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 July 2001 on mobility within the Community of students, persons undergoing training, volunteers, teachers and instructors;
(12) The activities developed by the Council of Europe in the field of the promotion of linguistic diversity and language learning.
