Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-24-Speech-2-512"

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"Mr President, as a Member of the European Parliament for Wales, I have a lot of sympathy for the many minority languages across Europe, particularly as my mother tongue is Welsh, one of the oldest European languages still in use. Numerically, the situation of Hungarian speakers in Slovakia is very similar to that of Welsh speakers in Wales, in excess of half a million individuals. This equates, however, to 20% of the people in Wales but less than 2% of the UK population. After many hundreds of years of pushing and pulling between English- and Welsh-speakers in Wales and arguments very similar to those now between Slovak and Hungarian speakers today, a happy coexistence has been achieved in Wales. The revival of the Welsh language over the past 15 years since devolution has been meteoric. The positive attitude to the language has had huge cultural benefits. In Wales, the key has been to take a pragmatic approach. We should aim for people to be able to speak in whatever language they feel most comfortable in, but without causing undue burden or cost. For example, I intend to finish my comments in Welsh although I would not want to incur the cost to taxpayers of simultaneous translation here in Parliament for the benefit of just two Welsh-speaking MEPs. However, diversity should be celebrated."@en1
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