Plaid Cymru Euro-MP Jill Evans has expressed her outrage that a new European qualification scheme has ignored the existence of the Welsh language. She fears that Welsh speakers may be put off taking advantage of the scheme because of the snub.

'Europass', launched this week by the European Commission, has been hailed as a European jobseekers' passport, designed to make it easier for people to explain their qualifications when looking for work in another European country.

The Europass is made up of a series of documents including a 'Language Passport' to demonstrate an individual's linguistic skills. This document allows people to select their mother tongue from a list that ranges from Arabic to Turkish and includes Catalan, Hebrew, Bulgarian, Korean as well as English.

But the list does not allow users to list Welsh either as their mother tongue or as a second language. This is despite Welsh being spoken by over 500,000 people in Wales, and by over 40% of young people. It is a mainstream language of education, culture and government.

Now there are concerns that Welsh speakers may be put off taking advantage of the scheme because of the snub. Jill Evans is calling for urgent changes to be made.

Speaking from Brussels, Jill Evans MEP said:

"Once again we see Wales left out when it comes to Europe - the UK Government is clearly not doing its bit to represent our interests at the European level.

"I'm a strong supporter of the Europass scheme - it has great potential to stimulate jobs and help growth by making it easier for people to look for work in other EU countries - but this snub to the Welsh language is utterly unacceptable.

"Not only is this a failure to recognise the reality of life in Wales - which after all is a part of the European Union - but I fear it could also discourage Welsh speakers or learners from taking part in this scheme. This could potentially put hundreds of thousands of people at a disadvantage. It shouldn't be difficult to rectify - I will be writing to the relevant authorities asking them to deal with the situation as a matter of urgency."

Notes

The 'Europass' scheme was launched by EU Education Commissioner Jan Fiegel at a ceremony in Luxembourg yesterday (Tuesday). The scheme, designed to make it easier for job seekers in Europe, draws together five existing elements, namely the Europass CV, Language Passport, Europass Mobility (record of experience abroad), Diploma Supplement and a Certificate Supplement.

More information can be found on the Europass website at http://europass.cedefop.eu.int/europass/preview.action

The Europass Language passport can be viewed at http://europass.cedefop.eu.int/instruments/lp/step0.do

Diwedd/Ends.