Portfolio As European Commissioner
As European Commissioner for Multilingualism in the Barroso Commission, Orban was responsible for the language policy of the European Union, i.e. promoting multilingualism for the citizens and the institutions of the European Union. He was the first to hold this portfolio. Multilingualism has previously and subsequently been a responsibility of the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, Ján Figeľ, the first Commissioner whose portfolio explicitly included multilingualism.
Politically, the portfolio is focused on promoting foreign languages learning, specifically, an individual's mother tongue plus two other languages, as means for the worker’s mobility and business competitiveness.
Though awareness for linguistic diversity is a policy target, the language rights of speakers of regional, minority, lesser-used and migrant languages are not legally protected. In the European Union, language policy is the responsibility of member states and European Union does not have a "common language policy." Based on the "principle of subsidiarity", European Union institutions play a supporting role in this field, promoting cooperation between the member states and promoting the European dimension in their language policies, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of their languages. The content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states and the European Union has very limited influence in this area. However, a number of European Union funded programmes actively promote language learning, most prominently under the much wider Lifelong learning Programme 2007–2013. Though regional and minority languages can benefit from European Union programmes, protection of linguistic rights is a matter for the member states.
Orban was also responsible for the effective functioning of the European Union's extensive interpretation, translation and publication services in the 23 official languages of the Union. Language policy affects the overall European Union strategy of communication with its citizens and the effort to establish a European identity. In many of these issues, responsibility was shared with other Commissioners, namely the European Commissioner for Education, Training and Culture, Ján Figeľ. Orban was also responsible, alongside the President of the Commission, Barroso, and Figeľ to work on "intercultural dialogue", including the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
Administratively, Orban was in charge of the Directorate-General (DG) for Translation, the DG for Interpretation and the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, as well as the Multilingualism policy unit (EAC-C-5) in the DG for Education and Culture. In total, Orban is responsible for overseeing 3,400 staff (approximately 15 per cent of the Brussels executive's workforce) and approximately 1 per cent of the EU budget.
Orban was assisted by a cabinet of nine members; Patricia Bugnot (French) was Head of Cabinet and Jochen Richter (German) was Deputy Head. The cabinet did not include any natively anglophone member. Orban's salary was €18,233.38 (approx. US$ 23,631, c.2007) a month plus housing allowance.
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