Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-20-Speech-1-128"
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"en.20031020.9.1-128"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, probably few topics are discussed in this Parliament on which there is consensus within this House. I hope that today's debate will prove an exception to this.
Anyone who is concerned about the quality of education within the European Union, at whatever level, will be delighted that the Council and Parliament have reached agreement to start a programme whose only goal is to improve the quality of higher education in the Member States.
In the past, only a chosen few were able to gain experience at foreign colleges of higher education or universities during their studies. That Europe is working towards offering more and more students this opportunity is a development about which we are all thrilled, no matter which political party we belong to. As a representative of Flanders, one of the smallest nations in the European Union, I often notice that our language, Dutch, is repeatedly under threat within our own universities, among others because an increasing number of courses, not only in Flanders, but also in the Netherlands, are being taught exclusively in English.
I am therefore particularly pleased that the Council and Parliament, in their common position on the Erasmus Mundus programme, are asking special attention for the promotion of the knowledge of languages of students both within and outside of the European Union. By offering students in the Erasmus programme the opportunity to learn a minimum of two languages that are spoken in the countries where the colleges of higher education are based, we may be able, in time, to reverse the pernicious trend that we notice mainly in the large Member States. It is a sad fact that, over the past decades, European young people’s knowledge of languages, as well as of culture and history, has diminished.
I am therefore stressing that it is not only students from third countries who should be encouraged to have a command of at least two EU languages. Our own young people of Europe too should urgently realise that a good command of various languages is the best guarantee that they will learn to appreciate other cultures. This is also the best way to maintain in future the rich diversity within the European Union. Accordingly, our universities and colleges, the entire higher education system, in fact, will remain a showcase to the rest of the world of which we have every reason to be proud."@en1
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