STELLA (language Courses) - Overarching EU Policy Goal

Overarching EU Policy Goal

According to the Lisbon Strategy (March 2000), the overarching EU policy goal is that “The Union must become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.” In the 2005 relaunch, the goal was stated as follows: The EU is to become “an advanced knowledge society with sustainable development, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” The EU works towards these policy goals on the one hand through policy work with Member States and on the other through subsidizing educational programmes.

The key challenge for the EU is to achieve multilingualism. As Umberto Eco (1993) stated, “we must place our hope in a polyglot Europe”. Multilingualism is a core value in Europe: it is one of its unique qualities and contributes to its richness. However, learning a lingua franca such as English is not enough. Every European citizen should speak their mother tongue and at least two other European languages.