Labour MSP Irene Oldfather has been flying the flag for Scotland at an historic EU event in Brussels to recognise the importance of enabling Members to speak in their regional language.

Irene Oldfather said:

"It was an historic day to debate the importance of Intercultural Dialogue and perhaps even more significant with St Andrews Day approaching.

"An agreement was signed between the Committee of the Regions and the UK Government on Linguistic Diversity and Regional Languages and for the first time at Committee of the Regions, there was the opportunity for UK Devolved Administrations to have their regional languages recognised.  Indeed, Welsh was spoken and interpreted for the first time.

"Unfortunately it appears that the Scottish Government has not yet trained any Gaelic speaking interpreters and has therefore fallen behind the Welsh in this groundbreaking initiative. As usual the SNP are big on rhetoric and short on action.

"The SNP constantly tell us they are standing up for Scotland , but in fact are behind the other devolved administrations in training interpreters, and have let Scotland down."

Scottish MEP Catherine Stihler added:

“The SNP try talk a lot about Europe , but their action always falls short. Linguistic diversity is hugely important, and the ability to talk and converse in your own language is vital. The SNP are just not keeping pace with other devolved parts of the UK , to everybody’s loss.”

29 November 2008

NOTES

Speaking during the debate, Irene Oldfather told colleagues from across the EU:

"As a Member of the Scottish Parliament, I recognise that for many communities across Scotland , the speaking of Gaelic is integral to retaining that strong sense of regional and cultural identity, and this move is to be congratulated for it says that Europe recognises both cultural and linguistic diversity."