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Multialphabetism in the European Union |
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Outlook: 20-21/11/2008 – Council of Ministers discusses multilingualism The Education, Youth and Culture council meets in Brussels to discuss the implementation of the strategy for multilingualism. Please
write to your national minister in order to have the question of
support for the Universal Character Set put on the agenda!
20-22/10/2008 – Second European Summit on Interoperability ESIIG2 – the Second European Summit on Interoperability in the iGovernment – will bring together representatives
of the European Commission, of the national and regional governments of
Europe, of the research field, the Academia, and experts of the ICT
sector. The event takes place under patronage of EU Commissioner
Viviane Reding.
Moreover, the ESIIG2 team joined forces with CEN – the European Committee for Standardisation – in order to define the priorities for interoperability (e.g. proper implementation of standards). The summit will be held in Rome, on October 20th to 22nd 2008 by Regione Lazio, Regional Ministry for Consumer Protection and Administrative Simplification, with the organizational support of LAit S.p.A. More information: http://www.esiig2.it/esiig2/index.php New: 26/09/2008 – French EU Presidency looks at multialphabetism The
French Council Presidency plans to evoke the topic of
multialphabetism during a forum on multilingualism in Europe. The event "États généraux du multilinguisme" will take place at the Sorbonne in Paris.
On the European Day of Languages 2008, several French Ministries invite 1000 persons from all countries of the EU and the EEA to take an inventory of multilingualism in Europe. This event is a highlight of the French EU Presidency. During the debate, political decision-makers from the different countries will present their conceptions of multilingualism and put them up for discussion. On this occasion, EU Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban will present his plan for promotion of multilingualism and emphasize the role of the EU in this matter. But primarily, this day will serve as a platform for exchange and for advertising multilingualism. For this purpose the following experts, actors and receivers will be invited: people responsible for education, managers, researchers, artists, translators, sportspeople. A meeting of those most diverse experiences and positions in this context is unpreceded in Europe. In three roundtable talks with 7-8 experts each from different countries, these topics will be discussed in interaction with the audience, and conclusions will be drawn. Source: Délégation Générale à la Langue Française et aux Langues de France (DGLFLF) / French Embassy, Berlin 18/09/2008 – Commission adopts Communication on Multilingualism — now Member States have to act In
its new Communication, entitled "Multilingualism: an asset for Europe
and a shared commitment", the Commission gives an overview of what
needs to be done to turn linguistic diversity into an asset for
solidarity and prosperity.
In Chapter 7 "The media, new technologies and translation", the Commission makes two statements that are important for multialphabetism on Member State level: - Information and communication technologies (ICT) need to be language-aware and promote content creation in multiple languages - The Member States are invited to ... stimulate and encourage further development and use of new technologies supporting multilingualism http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/pdf/com/2008_0566_en.pdf 09/09/2008 – Revision of the European Interoperability Framework open for comments A
draft document on which the EU's final European Interoperability
Framework (EIF v2.0) will be elaborated is now available for external
comments till the 22nd of September 2008:
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7728 --> http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=31508 Stakeholders may want to comment on that draft, especially on chapters 5.6 (Design for multilingual use) and 6.6 (Technical Level, especially the point "encoding" where an explicit reference to the Universal Character Set ISO/IEC 10646 is missing). Send your comments to: eifv2@ec.europa.eu 11/07/2008 – Commission promises to look at ICT for multialphabetism until September In response to the written question by MEP Marco Cappato (see below), Commissioner Günter Verheugen gave the following answer:
25/06/2008
– Yahoo! Mail supports Unicode"The Commission fully shares the Honourable Member’s view on the importance of guaranteeing equality and promoting multilingualism. The Commission uses 23 official languages. It has a longstanding and permanent commitment to actively support and promote linguistic diversity, starting with its own internal operations. […] Coordination takes place between the European Institutions as regards multilingualism support in information technology, and is driven by the Interinstitutional Informatics Committee (IIC). However, it is up to each Institution to determine and implement its own internal policy in this area. With respect to the Unicode standard itself, it should be noted that, as part of the market-driven and industry-led standardisation approach which is followed by the Commission, the actual implementation of standards in the economy at large remains voluntary. The responsibility for formal standardisation in Europe has been assigned to the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CEN/CENELEC) and the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI). Moreover, within the framework of these activities the CEN ‘Cultural Diversity Focus Group’ (CDFG) is a focal point in Europe for discussing these issues. In addition, the Commission supports activities within the European standardisation organisations with a view to promoting multilingual communication, for example the ETSI deliverable: ‘User-oriented handling of multicultural issues in broadband and narrowband multimedia communications’. In a forthcoming communication on multilingualism, the Commission will also look at how information technology can be used to promote and sustain multilingualism and thereby contribute to improving citizens' employability, the competitiveness of European enterprises, intercultural dialogue and social inclusion." Following its competitors GMX and Google Mail, webmail provider Yahoo! Mail has started sending messages by default in Unicode (UTF-8) instead of US-ASCII or Latin-1.
Received but corrupted messages from other formats can be restored by adjusting the encoding. These improvements affect up to 260 million users worldwide. 02/06/2008 – Letter to the Editor on character sets published on EurActiv 23/05/2008 – Italian MEP supports Unicode use on Member State level WRITTEN QUESTION by Marco Cappato (ALDE) to the Commission
17/04/2008
– i2010 Mid-Term Review requests ICT interoperabilitySubject: Unicode character set (ISO/IEC 10646) "The existence of a single set of characters in the various alphabets is of crucial importance in guaranteeing Europe linguistic diversity in electronic communications. In 1992 the Commission adopted the Unicode character set (ISO/IEC 10646) with a view to its being used by the European institutions in the hope of guaranteeing equality between the citizens of the various Member States and promoting multilingualism. In 2007 the High-Level Group on Multilingualism strongly encouraged the Member States to adopt Unicode with a view to putting an end to discrimination on the basis of nationality or language. In practice, the Unicode language code is still not recognised by all the administrative systems of the Member States or, more seriously still, by all the European institutions, including the Council. Nationals of European Union Member States are still forced to use the American character coding system (the American Standard Code for Information Interchange — ASCII), which, as it fails to provide letters with accents and certain special characters, leads to a loss of spelling skills and a consequent reduction in linguistic diversity. Could the Commission say what steps it intends to take to preserve accurate communication based on diverse alphabets? Does it intend to tackle specifically the question of the use of Unicode by including it in the forthcoming priority initiatives for multilingualism?" Source: www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2008-2908+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN The Communication from the Commission "Preparing Europe’s digital future / i2010 Mid-Term Review" makes the following statements: "The Single Market review underlines the potential of ICTs to open up the Single Market for the benefit of citizens, businesses and public authorities: the free movement of knowledge and innovation should be promoted as a ‘fifth freedom’ in the Single Market. The EU should improve the framework conditions for innovation, in particular in the information society, by accelerating the setting of interoperable standards and moving towards more common spectrum management. The Commission has been working on improving ICT standardisation and will come forward with a proposal by the end of 2008. A clear priority for the EU is to close the important gaps in the Single Market, particularly in services, and this includes: streamlining of procedures, reduction of administrative burdens, and promoting transborder market access in particular for public procurement. Applications would include: interoperable provision of pan-European eGovernment services and the crossborder recognition of eSignatures. The legal framework governing the information society and the sometimes fragmented implementation in the Member States can make it difficult to exploit the potential of ICTs on a European scale, risking increasing barriers to cross-border online trade. It is necessary to address overlapping requirements, gaps or inconsistencies in implementation and to keep pace with technological change […] to ensure the efficient functioning of the "e-Internal Market". Actions: […] Propose improvements to the EU's ICT standardisation system; […] Implement the eHealth lead market initiative: eHealth innovation scorecards; Recommendation on eHealth interoperability; address standardisation and certification needs; measures to improve legal certainty; […]" 15/04/2008 – Public hearing with stakeholders about multilingualism in Brussels As
a further step in the consultation process on multilingualism, the
Commission is organising a public hearing, in Brussels on 15 April
2008, to discuss the main themes that emerged from an online survey
(see 14/09/2007)
with experts and organizations involved in language learning and
promoting linguistic diversity. The outcomes of the discussions as well
those of the online consultation will be reflected in the Commission Communication on
Multilingualism, to be published in September 2008.
Programme and registration: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/consult/index_en.html 11/04/2008 – CDFG Character rendering meeting in Tallinn á à â
ã ä å ā ă ą
ǎ ạ í ì î ï
ĩ ī ĭ į ı ij
ǐ
đ ð ģ ħ ŋ ł ẅ ŧ ß ġ ŀ ķ ĸ ŗ α δ η κ ν π σ φ б д з й н р ф щ ы … just a small selection of what we Europeans need to write our languages; and they all need to be correctly presented on screens and in print; but what is "correct"? The CEN/ISSS Cultural Diversity Focus Group (CDFG) has the pleasure to invite you to a special meeting on character rendering on Friday 11 April 2008 in Tallinn, following a meeting of the CDFG on Thursday. The European scene is becoming increasingly multilingual. All languages need to be represented in an acceptable way on all electronic display devices, including - computer screens and printers, - public information screens, - television monitors, and - handheld devices. We would like to see experts present issues and solutions relating to character rendering, and to participate in a discussion with the purpose of focussing on the issue and possibly of agreeing on ways forward, e.g. through European standardization, through statements to European and national authorities, and through recommendations to the industry. We hope to see experts within the fields of - computer (and handheld device) operating systems, - font development, - hardware (printers and handheld devices), and - linguistcs, multilingualism and multiculturalism. Please contact the chair or secretary of the CDFG if you wish to participate in this meeting. Secretary: Håvard Hjulstad, hhj AT standard DOT no Chair: Marc W. Küster, kuester AT fh-worms DOT de 19/03/2008 – Unicode becomes obligatory for German eGovernment The Bundesverwaltungsamt has
published the latest version (4.0) of SAGA
(Standards und Architectures for eGovernment Applications). It says:
8.6.2 Zeichensätze Obligatorisch: Unicode v4.x UTF-8 Um ausreichend Zeichen für die verschiedenen, weltweit existierenden Buchstaben, Ziffern und Symbole zur Verfügung zu haben, sollte als Zeichensatz für Dokumente ISO 10646:2003 (auch bekannt als Unicode v4.x) in der UTF-8 Kodierung verwendet werden. [Raw
translation: Character sets … In order to have enough code
points for
the various letters, cyphers and symbols existing worldwide, ISO 10646
(aka Unicode) in UTF-8 format should be used as character set for
documents.]
ISO 10646:2003 according to SAGA 4.0 was already accepted for civil registry offices and will be proposed for corresponding application in registration offices at the next meeting of the workgroup "data set for registration" (DSMeld, probably in May 2008). 15/02/2008 – Ministerial conference on multilingualism The informal
ministerial meeting "Promoting
multilingualism: a shared commitment" will prepare key
messages for the Spring
European Council.
31/01/2008 – Multialphabetism conference A conference
with the title "Delivering
Multialphabetism to the European citizen“ takes
place in Brussels.
A representative from the European Commission will talk about introduction of multialphabetism into the EU databases, a representative from the European Committee for Normalisation (CEN) will present the latest developments in pan-European keyboard features (see 25/01/2008).
25/01/2008 – Open Workshop on Multilingual Extensions to Current Latin Keyboards An open
workshop to produce a
document on considerations and possible guidance on how to expand the existing
keyboard layouts to support multilingualism will be
kicked-off on 25 January 2008 at CEN, the European standards
organization. The urgency
of such support stems from the practical and legal requirements
that result from the free
movement of people
and goods within the European Union, but the findings will in no way be
limited to the EU with its many official, regional and minority
languages. The participation is also free to any interested party
anywhere in the world, although the workshop will be organized under
the auspices of CEN.
The workshop that has been fostered by CEN/ISSS Cultural Diversity Focus Group (CDFG) building on the highly pragmatic assumption that users of the existing keyboards should be able to continue their current way of operation with the extended layouts, and the new functionality should be intuitively recognizable to the extent possible. Thus, the workshop has no intention to define any specific, let alone a Pan-European keyboard layout. Liaison is sought with e.g., ISO/IEC JTC1/SC35 to minimize the risk of further divergence between actual implementations and formal standards (ISO/IEC 9995 series). Information on this workshop (WS/MEEK), including the adopted business plan and how to participate (with or without physical presence) is available at: http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/sectors/sectors/isss/activity/ws+meek.asp 23/11/2007 – Electronic health insurance cards further without Unicode On its 44th meeting in Brussels,
CEN/TC 224 decided to confirm the EN
1387 standard, as most countries
had expressed a willing of confirmation in the review enquiry launched
on 09/08/2007. So the reference to ISO 8859-1 (instead of ISO 10646)
will persist.
11+12/10/2007 – Interim Conference on Interoperability in the iGovernment 26/09/2007 – EU High-Level Group recommends Unicode On European
Day of Languages, the High-Level
Group on Multilingualism (launched by EU
Commissioner Ján Figeľ in autumn 2006)
presents its final
report in presence of Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard
Orban. It contains the following recommendation:
"… the databases for internal document management and the interfaces of software application and hardware equipment have been built around Unicode, allowing representation of the alphabets of all languages. The Group appeals to those authorities in the Member States and webmail providers who have not yet done so to change over to Unicode in order to avoid continuing discrimination of EU citizens on the grounds of nationality or language." (p. 16) 19/09/2007 – EU Ministers: More effort for cross-border interoperability In Lisbon,
a declaration
of the Ministers of EU Member States, Accession States, Candidate
Countries and Ministers of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA)
Countries, responsible for eGovernment policy, is approved unanimously.
The declaration encourages EU Member States to intensify efforts to achieve broad interoperability between and within national systems in order to ensure an Internal Market without electronic barriers. The European Commission is invited to support Member States by programs like IDABC and ICT PSP. 14/09/2007 – European Commission launches public consultation on multilingualism Closing date:
15/11/2007
Outcomes: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/consult/report_en.pdf 09/08/2007 – Revision of European standard for electronic health insurance cards? The European
Committee for Normalisation (CEN/TC 224, secretariat: AFNOR)
launches a periodical enquiry whether EN 1387
(machine-readable cards – health care applications) should be
reviewed. Closing date of voting: 30/10/2007.
Regarding multialphabetism, there is currently the following problem: For data fields L3-L5 (name, address etc.), EN 1387 makes a reference to ISO 8859-1 (8-bit Western European character set) which causes technical and legal problems regarding correct writing of names. Therefore, the reference should be changed to ISO 10646 (multi-byte Unicode character set). A revision of EN 1387 will also be a signal for the eEHIC workshop of CA.SS.TM that advocates use of ISO 8859 character sets in its decision No 190 (points 2 and 3.5) with reference to EN 1387. 24/11/2006 – Interoperability Declaration of Valencia The
participants and audience of the first European Summit on
Interoperability in the iAdministration (with the support of Committee
of the Regions and the Commission) in Valencia,
Spain, declared
(among other things):
2.
Interoperability is a multidimensional element that integrates technical, semantic,
organisational, legal
and cultural aspects […]
3. The key
element required in order to reach an effective
interoperability is
the human factor.
The training
and specialization of the organizations, the people in charge and the civil servants
are essential
[…]
4.
Interoperability has to be completely focused on the citizens, replying
to their demands and concrete problems in an efficient and excellent
way,
respecting in any case their fundamental
rights,
specially the protection of personal data, the privacy, the private
life and honour.
5.
Interoperability has to be
put into practice with preference in
the administrative levels
next to the citizenship.
8.
Interoperability requires an European basic ‘de minimis’
normative supported on a common policy or strategy that allows the harmonization of the legislation
of the Members States on the subject.
In addition, they proposed the creation of the European Regional Network for Interoperability (ERNI) and of a European Agency of Interoperability (EAI). Member States, regions or local administrations should incorporate to their own legislation, at an imperative level, the rules, standards, recommendations and instructions related to interoperability that integrate the European Interoperability Framework. 18/06/2003 – European health insurance card without Unicode The
Administrative Commission on
Social Security for Migrant Workers (CASSTM) adopts its decision
No
190 concerning the technical specifications of the European
health
insurance card. The decision advocates use of ISO 8859
character sets (see points 2 and 3.5) with reference to EN
1387.
The decision (2003/752/EC) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27/10/2003 (L 276/4). 07/1993 – European national libraries adopt ISO 10646 / Unicode The
National Libraries Project on CD-ROM (1990 - 1993) involved a
consortium of seven European national libraries. It was funded by the
Commission under its IMPACT programme. One major objective was to
improve interchange of bibliographic records irrespective of different
national MARC formats.
Workpackage 3 (Definition of a basic European character set) examined the problems of the extended character sets required in a European context. Use of a single 8-bit standard was rejected, as a maximum of 256 code points would be "hopelessly inadequate to handle all the different characters required". So ISO 2022 was suggested, a complicated system of escape sequences and shift codes that allowed for switching between different 8-bit character sets. During the work, ISO 10646 and Unicode appeared on the screen. External consultants were hired to review the impact of these new standards. Their key recommendation – to adopt as soon as feasible ISO 10646 or Unicode – was accepted. Source: Definition of a basic European character set : Final report, Public version / London : British Library / Florence : Biblioteca Nazionale, July 1993 (available from the Commission's Central Library in Brussels, shelfmark 94B/00140) Further reading: Susanne Peruginelli, Giovanni Bergamin, Pino Ammendola: Character sets: towards a standard solution? / Program (automated library and information systems), vol. 26, no. 3, July 1992, numéro spécial, p. 215-223, ISSN 0033-0337, published by Aslib (the Association for Information Management) (available from the Commission's Central Library in Brussels, shelfmark RA/00206 Y92) 30/06/1992 – Commission lists ISO 10646 as technical prerequisite for multilingualism Following a
request by the
Translation Service of the Commission, a special working group created
by the Comité de Coordination de la Standardisation approves
an internal document
named "Multilingualism
– The needs of the Institutions of the European Community" (rapporteur:
Panagiotis Alevantis).
The document comprises:
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