Romanian European Commissioner sworn in today

New European Commissioner for Multilingualism, Romanian Leonard Orban, and the future representative of Bulgaria in the EC Meglena Kuneva will be sworn in officially in a ceremony at the European Court of Justice on Monday. The two have already attended their first EC session on January 11 this year, shortly after Romania joined the European Union on January 1.

Orban will manage a budget of about 1.2 billion euro with 3,400 people in his subordination – that is, some 15% of the total payroll of European institutions. His subordinates operate in three fields of activity – translation, traduction and publications.

Orban’s portfolio tackles policies aimed at guaranteeing the access of EU citizens to documents translated in all 22 languages of the Union and at popularizing the language diversity. The Commission has been compiling a project to have EU citizens learn at least two European languages beside their mother tongue.