Slovenia hosting celebration of EFNIL's 20th anniversary
Ljubljana, 11 October - Slovenia will mark the 20th anniversary of the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL) at a gala event in Ljubljana's Cankarjev Dom on Wednesday evening in what will be a meeting of key language policy makers.
The organisation provides a forum for representatives of EU member states' institutions whose role includes monitoring the official language or languages of their country, advising on language use, or developing language policy.
In Slovenia, that is the role of the ZRC SAZU Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language, which is credited with bringing the anniversary celebration to Ljubljana.
The event will also mark the 20th anniversary of the Friar Stanislav Škrabec Foundation, which has been awarding scholarships to master's and doctoral students of the Slovenian language, Slavic languages, classical philology or comparative and general linguistics, and rewarding outstanding achievements in Slovenian linguistics.
President Nataša Pirc Musar will be honorary speaker at the event, which is part of the EFNIL's annual 20th conference. Other speakers will include Culture Minister Asta Vrečko, EFNIL head Sabine Kirchmeier, head of the Slovenian language institute Kozma Ahačič and co-founder of the Škrabec Foundation Janez Škrabec.
The event bears special importance because it will bring to the country as many linguists from across Europe as never before, as well as host all the experts supported or celebrated by the Škrabec Foundation.
Moreover, a resolution is expected urging all content providers and communications platforms to enable access in national languages.
If endorsed, the document will call on the European Commission to work harder to ensure that multinationals, such as Apple, Disney and Netflix, provide translations into local languages that have not yet been added to their services, including Slovenian.
Ahačič believes that Slovenia's membership of the EFNIL can be of great help in efforts to get to that point, since multiple stakeholders have more bargaining power than a single one.