06/18/07
The Bureau of the EFAy has written to the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe in Brussels following their meeting on 2nd June 2007.

At the meeting, the UN Year of International Languages 2008 was discussed and future EFAy activities, relating to the call, were planned. However it was felt that more information was needed to clarify several issues relating to the use of different languages by the UN itself, especially by the UN information centres. Therefore it was decided that the following letter should be sent

At the next Bureau meeting later this year, decisions about which activities to be taken up by the EFAy in 2008 will be finalised. Members are asked to write to the EFAy Coordinator, Eva Bidania, with further ideas and/or methods of cooperation related to the UN Year of International Languages before September 2007.

Afsané Bassir-Pour

Director

UN Regional Informa tion Centre for Western Europe

Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 155, Block C2, 7th floor

1040 Brussels

Belgium

Dear Afsané Bassir-Pour

UN Year of International Languages 2008

I was interested to read last month that the UN has called for 2008 to be the Year of International Languages. In his speech, the French Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador M. Jean-Marc de la Sablière, who introduced the draft resolution to the UN Plenary session on 16th May 2007 calling for 2008 to be made the UN Year of International Languages, said in his presentation that the draft met two imperatives:

1. to ensure a comprehensive approach to the question of multilingualism

2. to promote a reasonable and quite ambitious vision

Also included in his address, Ambassador M. Jean-Marc de la Sablière, states that languages other than the working or official languages “naturally have their place”. Ambassador M. Jean-Marc de la Sablière goes on to stress the importance of providing United Nations information, technical assistance and training materials in the local language of the beneficiary country.

The EFAy would like to know if the UN information centers situated around the globe currently provide ‘information, technical assistance and training materials’ in the ‘local’ languages and not just the languages of the state. On the UN Regional Information Centre for Western Europe site for example (http://www.unric.org/index.php?lang=en), I was interested to see that the information provided is only in the state languages and that Ireland/ Éire comes under English despite the fact that Irish is now an official EU language.

During the UN Year of International Languages 2008, will the Irish language, Catalan, Basque, Galician, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish, Breton languages etc, have more prominence in the work of the UN in western Europe than is currently apparent? If not, then could you explain what is meant by ‘local’ languages, as mentioned in the speech by Ambassador M. Jean-Marc de la Sablière in his presentation on 16th May?

We appreciate the ruling by the UN to dedicate 2008 as the International Year of Languages, but would be pleased if you could clarify the above points. In addition, we would also like to know how the UN International Year of Languages will change things to the benefit of the lesser used languages of Europe, especially for those languages that are not officially recognized by their host states, such as in France.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Bureau Members

European Free Alliance Youth