April 2008: Orban to Visit Fryslân
The European commissioner for multilingualism, Leonard Orban, will pay a working visit to Ljouwert / Leeuwarden on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 April.
Orban has been invited by the province of Fryslân in cooperation with the Representation in the Netherlands of the European Commission. At a large public debate – on Thursday – at the Mercator Research Centre / Fryske Akademy Orban will acquaint himself with the language situation in the province of Fryslân as a good example for other multilingual European regions. The aim of the visit of the commissioner is to acquire ideas for the development of his own policy on multilingualism.
The Mercator Research Centre has been invited by the organisation to present itself to Orban’s delegation at the city hall of Ljouwert / Leeuwarden on Friday afternoon.
The Mercator Research Centre hopes that the visit of commissioner Orban will generate support from Brussels for projects that the Mercator Research Centre will develop in Fryslân and other European regions, such as a European Agency for Language Diversity and Language Learning in the ‘Knowledge city’ of Ljouwert / Leeuwarden.
