Commissioner for languages to visit

Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban will be arriving in Malta this evening for a three day-visit to discuss further collaboration on the development of Maltese as one of the 23 official languages.

Mr Orban said when contacted that Maltese, although the language of the smallest member, was still considered by the European Commission to be as important as other languages, as it represented the EU's cultural diversity.

During his visit in Malta, the Romanian Commissioner will meet Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and many groups connected with the Maltese language, including the National Forum on the Maltese Language and foreign languages institutes.

Mr Orban will also be visiting the Book Fair at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, where tomorrow he will deliver a keynote speech on Languages for Our Future.

Indirectly, the Maltese language has proved to be the biggest provider of EU jobs since Malta's accession to in 2004. In fact, the majority of Maltese recruited by the EU since 2004 in Brussels and Luxembourg work as translators, revisers and lawyer linguists in the Maltese language departments established by the EU institutions.