New stage in the development of multilingualism principle in Europe: modelling multilingual and multicultural society

The article considers the activities of the EU political leadership and its educational communities in support of linguistic and cultural diversity and the construction of a multilingual and multicultural society in Europe. A qualitatively new stage of political and economic integration of the European Communities began with the 1992 signing of the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union establishing and undertaking purposeful measures on a planned change of language policy with the aim to support multilingualism and linguistic diversity, and to promote the overcoming of language and cultural barriers by rejecting the traditional monolingual policies of the European nation-states. The paper focuses on the main steps in achieving of the target of individual multilingualism in Europe, starting with the 1990s new conception in the field of education, teaching and learning, - the conception of life-long education. In the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution, formal education at the first stages of life of an individual is not sufficient for successful provision of innovative technological processes and making optimal decisions in the constantly changing world. Particularly this is the case with mastering foreign languages on a sufficient functional level required by a multilingual and multicultural society. In order to change the Europeans' traditional monolingual and monocultural mentality, the European Council, Commission and Parliament have effectively used campaigns organised in the format of "European Years" on certain topics and promoted science research with subsequent publishing and disseminating the results in the media. A decisive role in changing the public conscience in favour of multilingualism and linguistic diversity, as well as in providing broad support for legislative measures in the field of education with the aim to educate a new multilingual generation of European citizens capable of communicating in no less than two languages, not counting the mother tongue, was played by the European Year of Languages-2001. The European Year of Multicultural Dialogue-2008 demonstrated the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of Europe and the need for support for national cultures, particularly, the cultures and languages of the minorities. Next, the paper considers the role of the Lisbon Strategy on the basis of the decision of the European Council of 2000, which set an aim to turn the European economy into the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy, in the introduction of the conception of multilingualism and linguistic and cultural diversity into life. The Lisbon strategy in the field of education was further developed in thedecisions of the Barcelona Council of 2002 on turning the European system of education into the worldwide standard of quality. Summing up, a conclusion can be made that the enlargement of the European Union and the growth of the number of official and working languages have brought about a more active language policy in support of multilingualism and multicultural diversity. An inalienable part of the new European education standard is a stable multilingualism on the basis of special programmes within the conception of life-long learning in the common world education area.

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