– The next item is the Commission’s statement on the use of minority languages within the framework of the European cultural heritage.

8. Calls on the EU institutions to ensure that all EU citizens – female, male, young and old, urban and rural – are able to take an active part, with equal rights, in civil dialogue, without being subjected to discrimination, and, in particular, that members of linguistic minorities are able to use their native languages in such forums; takes the view that the EU's role in this area should be to foster the realisation of the principle of gender equality and to set an example in promoting that principle both within the Member States and outside the EU;

8. Calls on the EU institutions to ensure that all EU citizens – female, male, young and old, urban and rural – are able to take an active part, with equal rights, in civil dialogue, without being subjected to discrimination, and, in particular, that members of linguistic minorities are able to use their native languages in such forums; takes the view that the EU's role in this area should be to foster the realisation of the principle of gender equality and to set an example in promoting that principle both within the Member States and outside the EU;

The strategy focuses on encouraging the learning and use of foreign languages in the Member States, not on the in-house linguistic state of affairs of European institutions.

- providing for foreign language learning as part of initial and lifelong training.

(2) Article 18 of the Treaty establishes the right of every citizen of the European Union "to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States". The ability to use foreign languages is essential in order in practice fully to exercise that right.