European Year of Languages 2001

The European Parliament adopted its resolution on the proposal for a European Year of Languages in 2001. Parliament's rapporteur was Mr. Vasco Graça Moura (EPP/ED, P). Parliament adopted a number of amendments including : - a reference to the value in terms of civilisation and culture embodied therein, ackowledging the principle that all languages must be recognised to have equal value and dignity and encouraging multilingualism; - a reference to the advantages of competencies in several languages as being a key element of professional, as well as personal, development; - how the programme should be accessible to all citizens whatever their social situation; - greater emphasis on innovative teaching and learning methods: - Member States may designate one or more appropriate bodies to organise its participation in the Year; - a Committee, as referred to in Articles 3 and 7 of Council Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, and it will draw up its own rules of procedure; - applications for co-financing actions shall include information enabling the outcome to be assessed on the basis of factual criteria; - it shall be ensured that calls for proposals are made in sufficient time and circulated as widely as possible; - importance of actions under this Decision to also be consistent with Community actions and initiatives in the field of culture; - for actions which may be financed up to 100% from the Community budget, as a guideline, such actions may be allocated 40% of the total budget: - the Community-wide information campaign should include, among other things, the setting up of an interactive Web site and the dissemination of information on projects; - surveys and studies on a Community-wide scale should be undertaken with the possible aim of better defining the situation in Europe with regard to languages (including sign languages and the classical languages), their use (including in scientific and university research) and language teaching and learning and the acquisition of related skills; - there should be evaluation studies concerning the effectiveness and impact of the European Year, examining best practice in the field of language teaching and training and disseminating the results throughout the Member States; - actions which may be co-financed by the Community budget, as a guideline, may be allocated 60% of the total budget.�