On 26–27 September 2013, the Seimas will host the Meeting of the Chairpersons of the Committees on Education, Science and Culture and the Committees on the Development of Information Society of the EU Parliaments United in Diversity: Political and Social Development Aspects of EU Languages and Cultures. The event will bring together representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission; the participants of the academic conference of European linguists will present their findings.

The meeting will focus on the challenges for the development of multilingualism in the digital age, on machine translation and preservation of a language as a cultural heritage by way of information technologies. “Citizens of the European Union who foster their native language cannot do without high quality machine translation. The quality of machine translation and its progress fully depend on the digitalisation of language resources,” said Mindaugas Bastys, Chair of the Seimas Committee on the Development of Information Society, briefing on the event.

“Multilingualism is a major cross-cutting theme encompassing the social, cultural, economic and therefore educational spheres,” stated Audronė Pitrėnienė, Chair of the Seimas Committee on Education, Science and Culture.

The programme of the Meeting and more detailed information are available on the website of the parliamentary dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU at: www.eu2013.lrs.lt and at: http://www.lrs.lt/intl/presidency.show?theme=283&lang=2&p_sp_reng_id=7. The Meeting will be held in the Plenary Chamber of the Seimas (Building 2).

The event will be webcast live on the website of the Seimas and the website of the parliamentary dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU and broadcast on  the Seimas – tiesiogiai  television channel and the Culture Channel of the Lithuanian National Radio and Television. The Chair of the Seimas Committee of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture and the Chair of the Seimas Committee on the Development of Information Society will brief on the event in the television programme, Labas rytas Lietuva (Good Morning Lithuania), on the Lithuanian National Radio and Television Channel on 27 September 2013 at 7.10 a.m.

For the information of the media, a press conference of the participants of the Meeting (in Lithuanian and English) will be held in the Press Conference Hall of the Seimas (Building 2) on 27 September at 12.30 p.m.    

On 18 September 2008, the European Commission adopted a Communication entitled "Multilingualism: an asset for Europe and a shared commitment". This Communication proposes to mainstream multilingualism across a series of EU policy areas. In the same year, the Council of the European Union adopted a Resolution on a European strategy for multilingualism. Understanding and recognising the exclusive importance of this document for the development of lesser-used EU languages and preservation of their heritage in the digital age, the Committee on Education, Science and Culture and the Committee on the Development of Information Society of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania took the lead in further analysis of the development of multilingualism in the context of modern technologies and proposed putting the meeting of the chairpersons of the relevant committees on the agenda of the Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The Meeting plans to adopt the conclusions of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, which should give an incentive for more active discussion on multilingualism and its assurance in the digital age and should draw the attention of the EU Member States to the challenges for multilingualism and language policy and their solutions by way of information technologies.

Offices of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture and the Committee on the Development of Information Society

Jolanta Anskaitienė, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6508, e-mail: jolanta.anskaitienė@lrs.lt