International language policy conference

“Perspectives of language communication in the EU”
Nitra, Slovakia, 28 – 29 July 2016

The conference will be held during the 101st World Esperanto Congress in Nitra (23-30 July 2016) under the auspices of Andrej Kiska, president of the Slovak Republic, and in cooperation with the Visegrad Fund, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra.

The conference is held under the auspices of Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and the keynote speakers will be Tibor Navracsics (Hungary), Vytenis Andriukaitis (Lithuania), two current EU Commissioners, and Ján Figeľ (Slovakia), former EU Commissioner.

The goal of the conference is to create an international discussion forum for relevant academics, politicians and representatives of the civic platform in order to lead an expert discussion on international communication in the EU as a tool for solving language issues, and also interethnic, intercultural and interreligious issues which the EU will face in the years to come.

We want to join politicians, language experts and representatives of civic associations of the V4 countries – Czech republic, Hungary , Poland and Slovakia and also other countries – Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Ireland and others who realize the current unequal application of national languages in the communication in the EU. The final goal of the conference is to form a common declaration and recommendations for national parliaments and the Europan Parliament.

The conference will have a plenary discussion as well as panel discussions and round tables in the following topic sections:

  1. Language issues of citizen participation (description of status quo and introduction of perspective measures to improve the communication of citizens of various nations with state insitutions and EU bodies).
  2. Economic integration of individual EU states, based on the principle of equal language opportunities and the usage of multiple languages according to strategic agreements and particular economic sectors.
  3. Status quo and perspectives of language instruction in the EU (measures to support the instruction and to support instruction of minority languages and languages of neighbouring countries, supporting the development of European identity and solidarity).

Provisional programme of the discussions

Thursday, July 28th 2016

8:00-9:00 – Registration
9:00-10:00 – Opening ceremony: presentation of Miroslav Lajčák, vice-president of the government and minister of foreign and European affairs of the Slovak Republic; Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for education, culture, youth and sport; Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for health and food safety; and Ján Figeľ, former European Commissioner for education, culture and multilingualism (2004-2009)
10:00-12:30 – Plenary discussion: intervention by invited experts on three topics
12:30-14:30 – Lunch and tour of the poster exhibition
14.30-16.00 – Panel discussions in sections
16:00-16:30 – Pause
16:30-18.00 – Round table discussions

Friday, July 29th 2016

8:30-10:00 – Discussions in sections, preparation of conclusions from the sections
10:00-10:30 – Pause
10:30-12:00 – Plenary discussion, conclusions, recommendations, declaration

Central European Interfaith Forum – CEIF 2016

The Central European Interfaith Forum 2016 (CEIF 2016) will be held on the 25th of July 2016. The event will be organized by the Parliament of the World’s Religions – Slovakia and the Slovak Esperanto Federation in collaboration with other partners.

CEIF 2016 aims to strengthen interreligious and civic dialogue in the search for solutions against the background of growing ethnic, cultural and religious tension in Europe. The alarming trends of nationalism, extremism and xenophobia in our societies, as well as the complex economic, social and political issues the world has to confront today, require dialogue between the spiritual authorities, communities and the guiding institutions of this world. This is the kind of dialogue, followed by practical action, that the Central European Interfaith Forum aims to inspire.

More information (in Slovak, English and Esperanto): http://parlament2017.sk/ceif-2016/