Moderator: Marc Leprêtre

1. About Language Policy

Language policy is made of all the instruments a linguistic group designes and apply in order to manage linguistic diversity. Nevertheless, any kind of Language Policy implies to have to make choices, some of them sometimes will not satisfy a part of the population. Dialogue, flexibility and capacity of interaction are therefore fundamental.

Language Policy is a continuous process which must be based on consenses and interaction between the parts concerned by this process.

Language Policy is not merely a matter of State: it is much more than this: civil society as a whole, civic and human right organizations, teachers, activists, and so forth must play [or should] also a significant role in the process.

Three domains are at the core of most language policy processes:

· Intergenerational transmission of language [language reproduction]

· Education [language production]

· Economic added value of language [language use]

These three issues are closely linked insofar as all them provided the necessary and fundamental range of linguistic tools to incentivate language learning, social use of the language and improve the economic development of the linguistic group.

To increase the number of successful processes it is necessary to improve the training of highly qualified professionals on language policy issues.

Finally, we the whole process as to be accurately evaluated according to costs estimates (in order to know what economic, human and technical resources will be necessary and what can be its social cost. Language Policy as also to be evaluated according to cost-effectiveness criteria to rationalize and make the best possible use of allocated resources.

2. General issues, topics and facts closely related to language policy

There is a growing awareness of the importance of language policy and language diversity in the bosom of large international organizations.

More attention should be paid to the political history of language groups as far as it plays a highly significant role in the interactions between language groups, especially in post-colonial political, economic and social contexts.

There is a rather widespread feeling than there is a covert international pressure over the so-called transition countries of Central and Easter Europe. The same is applicable to countries of Africa, Asia and Central and South America. This leads to challenge the applicability of uniform and universal standards of language policy, as well as to the need for a categorization of language policy processes all over the world in order to make them more effective.

Furthermore there is also a debate regarding language rights, as far as rights do imply also duties and obligations.

Finally, we should develop the theoretical model of linguistic subsidiarity raised by Prof. Bastardas in his keynote address in order to allocate, reserve and guarantee certain domains for local languages in a fast growing globalization context.

3. The role of Linguapax Institute

Several proposals have been submitted regarding the future role of the Linguapax Institute in the context of the already existing organizations and centers devoted to language policy and promotion of linguistic diversity. Summing up, the Institute Linguapax should:

Promote the creation of networks for language promotion

Use and share its expertise together with other institutions and organizations

Devote a substancial part of its activities to conflict prevention

Convince policy makers to invest in language-related matters

For this, it is necessary to establish a well-defined work programme discussed and designed thanks to the largest possible amount of partners, and in this sense, the Congress can be an excellent starting point.

Aknowledgements

· To all the speakers of workshop 3 for the high quality of their papers;

· To all participants in workshop 3 for helping to draft these conclusions by means of their comments, questions and criticism;

· To all those participants -and I know a lot of them in this room- who have made important personal efforts to attend the Congress;

· To the interpreters who have done such an excellent job during all the week;

· To the technical--assistance personnel of the WTC;

· To Marie-Amélie and Josep, especially, because without them this Congress would not have taken place, and to all the personnel of the UNESCO Center of Catalonia and the Institute Linguapax who has been working in the shadow;

· Finally to Fèlix Martí, for being the promotor of both the Congress and the Institute Linguapax, and for maintaining his dynamism and strong will in the defence and promotion of linguistic diversity during so many years. I'm sure he will go on that way for many years more.