Mr President, as a former primary school head teacher, I am very pleased to be able to make my first speech to this crowded Chamber on a subject that is very close to my heart. It is significant but perhaps ironic that the only section of the hemicycle which is full this evening is the interpreters' booths.

I want to direct my remarks to Chapter III of the programme before us on language teaching. I welcome the parts of the programme which refer to this, small as they are. Members who have tried to have a conversation with not only the British MEPs but also the British people will know that by and large language teaching in Britain is behind that of other countries, as is the knowledge of languages of many of our citizens. This stems from an education system which positively discourages language teaching in many of our schools, certainly in primary schools. So, I am delighted that this programme will go some way to addressing that problem.

My message today is that Parliament must do more than it has in the past to enforce its directives and the good words that we speak in this Parliament. Britain, as we all know, does not have a particularly good record as regards enforcing European legislation and I hope that Parliament along with the other institutions will try to make certain that the British Government and Britain as a whole will follow the example of other states and adopt a much larger programme of language learning and language teaching.

I particularly welcome the initiatives in this programme that encourage minority languages. The many hundreds of lesser languages that exist across Europe need to be encouraged and need to be developed so that the very rich cultural base of Europe can grow and prosper as we move forward to another century.

Europe may be moving towards one currency, however slowly, but I am confident that this SOCRATES programme, if enforced properly, will ensure that Europe does not move, however slowly, towards one language, whatever that might be. I welcome this and hope it is just one step in the right direction, which Parliament will do much to enforce and encourage.