The EU parlament elected its new president on January 2017, Antonio Tajani. His speech in the EP plenary session, mentioning that his cabinet will pay attention to the problems faced by minority language speakers and people living in perriferal regions, made us feel optimistic about the fact that the EU parlament is taking signidicant action in its work to build an inclusive Europe. So we wasted no time and sent the letter bellow to the new EU president.

You can also listen to Antonio Tajani’s speech here.

I have the honor of writing to you on behalf of TEJO, the World Esperanto Youth Organization.

First of all, we would like to take the opportunity to congratulate you on your new position. We hope you will serve a fruitful mandate which will benefit all citizens of the European Union and continue your work on consolidating a more democratic Europe.

Since our organization is focused on the advantages offered by a just international language, we fully understand the importance of language rights in the context of an inclusive European Union, aiming to offer equal right to all its citizens. We are continually involved in the fight against language discrimination and we strive to advocate for the rights of linguistic minorities as well, by making their voices heard when insisting on substantial equality in international contexts. This being said, we were nothing short of overjoyed when we heard your speech in the EP Plenary session. Knowing that a member of your Cabinet will be assigned to tackle the issues faced by linguistic minorities and people living in peripheral regions, makes us confident to believe that the EU Parliament is making significant improvements in its work on building an inclusive Europe. And in this fight against language discrimination, we want to assure that you and the delegated Cabinet member will have the full support of the World Esperanto Youth Organization, an organization with 78 years of experience in language-related matters. Please know that we are always open for a discussion on such issues and we will proactively bring to the table current situations in which language rights are being violated and propose appropriate measures to be taken.

We look forward to building together a better Europe which listens to the voices of all its citizens no matter which language they speak. And as you said, we are eager to “open up the doors of the Parliament to the citizens of Europe so that we can have a constant discussion” and we hope to see the invitation to dialogue being made available regardless of language.

 

Respectfully,

Michael Boris Mandirola
President of TEJO