Commissioner for Multilingualism
The Commissioner for Multilingualism is the member of the European Commission whose remit is the issue of linguistic diversity. It was only since the Barroso I Commission in 2004 that the Commissioner for Education and Culture was also expressly responsible for the area of languages; With the EU expansion in 2007 , multilingualism was spun off as a separate department. The Romanian Leonard Orban has been the incumbent since then . In the Barroso II Commission , which started its work in February 2010, multilingualism was transferred back to the education department. In the Juncker Commission , the function is assigned to the Commissioner for Budget and Personnel .
Responsibilities
From a political point of view, the task area is mainly focused on the promotion of foreign language skills as a means for the mobility of European workers and competitiveness in the common labor market. The Commissioner is also responsible for the rights of speakers of regional and minority languages and the languages of migrants. The Commissioner for Multilingualism shares the competence for intercultural dialogue with the Commission President .
From an administrative point of view, the Commissioner for Multilingualism reports to the Directorates-General for Translation , Joint Interpreting and Conference Services and (as far as multilingualism issues are concerned) the Publications Office of the European Union and the Multilingualism Policy Department in the Directorate-General for Education and Culture . This corresponds to a total of 3,400 employees - around 15% of the European Commission's staff - and around 1% of the EU budget .
Previous incumbent
Commissioner | Term of office | Country | national party | european party | other responsibilities |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
unoccupied | since 2014 | ||||
Androulla Vassiliou | 2010-2014 | Cyprus | EDI | ELDR | |
Leonard Orban | 2007-2010 | Romania | PNL related parties | ELDR related parties | |
Ján Figeľ | 2004-2006 | Slovakia | KDH | EPP | Education and culture |