Jan Roukens * Breaking the Language Barrier: Towards a Multilingual Information Society in Europe

3. Who should tackle the challenges?

European initiatives have stressed the importance of the private sector's role in bringing about the information society. However, when considering language aspects, positive action is also required by the public sector both at the level of the Member States and at EU level. Public sector action should aim at preserving linguistic diversity by ensuring that all languages concerned can be adequately handled by the new technologies and that information content is accessible in those languages.

Maintaining the vitality of their languages is primarily the responsibility of the Member States. However, the European institutions can also play a constructive role. First, by ensuring that all official languages of the Union have their proper place in the functioning of those institutions. Secondly, the Commission can stimulate awareness of language issues with public and private actors. Thirdly, it can play a catalysing role in relation to the multilingual aspects of the information society.

Educational institutions, too, play a particularly important role in the quest to preserve linguistic diversity. In addition to mastering of mother tongues, the learning of at least one additional language is almost becoming a necessity for every European citizen in the emerging global information society. However, in many respects it is the private sector which holds the key to ensuring that the European information society will be truly multilingual, as this sector will produce the multilingual content to fuel the European information society. Multilingual interfaces designed and produced by private companies can ease access to information from international sources. In the field of language learning, private organisations can supplement the activities of public sector educational institutions. Translation, interpretation and localisation activities are, for example, mainly carried out by the private sector.

A further contribution is made by research and development. R&D activities, often sponsored under European programmes, have laid the foundation for a strong scientific base for language technology in Europe.

4. An agenda for action

The multilingual information society will not come about by itself. Market forces alone will not be sufficient to ensure linguistic diversity and equal opportunities for everyone. The public sector, both the Member States and the EU, will have to create the right conditions for the multilingual information society to emerge in Europe by clearly defining the political framework, by sustained support to relevant technological developments and by setting examples in areas under their responsibility.

The European Commission believes that, if Europe is to manage the transition towards the information society in such a way that the multilingual character of Europe is maintained, it needs an explicit policy framework. In this context, an agenda for action, prepared by DG XIII/E, has been adopted by the European Council of Ministers on 21 November 1996. The action programme is called "The Multilingual Information Society (MLIS)", with the subtitle : 'Promoting the linguistic diversity of the Community in the Information Society'. This agenda has the dual objective of first creating a policy framework for discussion of, and actions on, issues concerning the multilingual information society (between the EU and the Member States, between the public and private sectors, and between institutions and citizens), and secondly of a series of actions aimed at ensuring full participation by all concerned - citizens, businesses and administrations.

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