Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-13-Speech-4-212"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-12-13"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Language diversity2
dcterms:Language	"de"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20011213.16.4-212"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-12-13-Speech-4-2132
lpv:speaker	lp:Bernd Posselt2
lpv:spokenAs	member; EPP-ED (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3,3 vice-chair; Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3,3 substitute; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3,3 member; Delegation to the EU-Czech Republic Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-10-06--2002-01-14)3,3 unknown; Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern e.V. (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3,3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, Commissioner, when this House debated language diversity and lesser-used languages for the first time at the beginning of the 1980s, your predecessor, Commissioner Nielson, said a few sentences in Welsh and, although we did not understand a word, we rejoiced in this declaration of the cultural diversity of Europe. In this respect, I should like to say to you that our vision of Europe is not a technocratic, bureaucratic or economic project; for us, Europe is, first and foremost, a cultural project, the language diversity of which deserves to be safeguarded. That includes your mother tongue, Mr President, the English language, because we need to guard against a standard global language which, if it were to be called English, would be an insult to Shakespeare. Even the main languages of the European Union, such as French, which is also one of the UN official languages, Spanish, which is one of the up-and-coming world languages and was officially used for the first time in the American electoral campaign and will soon become the second language of the USA, and German, which is the mother tongue of the majority of the inhabitants of the EU, are now minority languages. Our former fellow member Siegbert Alber once said that in Europe we are all minorities. But our main concern is – of course – to safeguard the lesser-used languages which are official languages but, more to the point, to safeguard the languages which are the subject of today's debate, namely the lesser-used languages which are not official languages of the EU, but which need our massive support. Unfortunately, we cannot even introduce them as official languages in our committees. That would probably be asking too much. But we must do all we can to safeguard the regional and lesser-used languages of the European Union. Because, taken together, the people who make up national minorities are already the second largest nationality in today's European Union – never mind tomorrow's – after the Germans and before the French. That gives you an idea of the quantitative dimension of this issue, and if you then look at the qualitative dimension of the nationality problems in the Balkans and elsewhere, then minorities are obviously set to become either the mortar or the explosive in the foundations of Europe. We are fighting for them to become the mortar of Europe, which is why we support the lesser-used languages."@en1

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