Council conclusions on the European Indicator of Language Competence
Date: 2006-07-25
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: assessment, data collection, education policy, evaluation method, language teaching, multilingualism

25.7.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 172/1

I

(Information)

COUNCIL

Council conclusions on the European Indicator of Language Competence

(2006/C 172/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

— the Barcelona European Council conclusions of 15-16

March 2002 (3), which:

having regard to:

— the strategic goal set for the European Union by the Lisbon
European Council of 23-24 March 2000 and reaffirmed by
the Stockholm European Council of 23 and 24 March 2001
to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based
economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth,
with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion;

— the mandate from the Lisbon European Council to the
Education Council
to undertake a general reflection on the
concrete
focusing on
common concerns and priorities while respecting national diver-
sity (1);

future objectives of

education systems,

— endorsed the detailed work programme on the follow-
education and training

the objectives of

up of
systems (4),

— called for further action to improve the mastery of basic
two foreign

in particular by teaching at least

skills,
languages from a very early age; and

— called for the establishment of a linguistic competence

indicator in 2003;

— the Council conclusions on new indicators in the fields of

education and training of May 2005 (5)

— the Council Resolution of 14 February 2002 on the promo-
tion of linguistic diversity and language learning (2) which
emphasised, amongst other things, that:

— the Communication from the Commission to the European
Parliament and the Council entitled The European Indicator of
Language Competence (6);

— the knowledge of languages is one of the basic skills which
each citizen needs to acquire in order to take part effectively in
the European knowledge society and therefore facilitates both
integration into society and social cohesion; and that

— the draft recommendation of the European Parliament and
of the Council on key competences for lifelong learning (7),
which defines communication in a foreign language as a
key competence;

— all European languages are equal in value and dignity
from the cultural point of view and form an integral
part of European culture and civilisation,

and which invited the Member States to set up systems of
validation of competence in language knowledge based on the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages devel-
oped by the Council of Europe;

(1) Doc. SN 100/1/00 REV 1, paragraph 27.
(2) OJ C 50, 23.2.2002, p. 1.

— the Communication from the Commission to the Council,
the European Economic and
the Regions

the European Parliament,
Social Committee and the Committee of
entitled A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism (8),

(3) SN 100/1/02 REV 1.
(4) adopted by the Education Council on 14 February 2002 (OJ C 142,

14.6.2002, p. 1).

(5) OJ C 141, 10.6.2005, p. 7.
(6) doc. 11704/05 - COM (2005) 356 final.
(7) doc. 13425/05 - COM (2005) 548 final.
(8) doc. 14908/05 - COM (2005) 596 final.

C 172/2

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Official Journal of the European Union

25.7.2006

REAFFIRMS that

— foreign language skills, as well as helping to foster mutual
understanding between peoples, are a prerequisite for a
mobile workforce and contribute to the competitivity of the
European Union economy;

— periodic monitoring of performance through the use of
indicators and benchmarks is an essential part of the Lisbon
process, allowing good practice to be identified with a view
to providing strategic guidance and steering for both short
and long term measures of the ‘Education and Training
2010’ work programme;

RECOGNISES that

— measures are needed to remedy the current absence of reli-
able comparative data on the outcomes of foreign language
teaching and learning;

— such measures must be based upon the gathering of data
through objective tests of language skills, developed and
administered in such a way as to ensure the reliability, accu-
racy and validity of those data;

— such data have the potential to help identify and share
good practice in language education policies and language
teaching methods through an enhanced exchange of infor-
mation and experience;

— Member States need a clearer picture of the practical and
financial arrangements they will each need to make in
order to implement the European Indicator of Language
Competence;

STRESSES that

— the development of the Indicator should fully respect the
responsibility of Member States for the organisation of their
education systems and should not impose undue adminis-
trative or financial burdens on the organisation and institu-
tions concerned;

— the method for data-gathering should take account of
previous work in the field at
international, Union and
Member State level, and be devised and implemented in a
cost-effective manner;

— the European Indicator of Language Competence shall be
put in place as soon as possible, in accordance with the
following terms of reference:

— via a common suite of tests administered to a repre-
sentative sample of the target population in each
Member State;

— from a representative sample of pupils in education

and training at the end of ISCED level 2;

— where a second foreign language is not

taught
before the end of ISCED 2, Member States may, in
the first round of data-gathering, choose to gather
data for the second foreign language from pupils at
the level of ISCED 3;

— for those languages for which there exists a suitable
representative sample of learners in a given Member
State;

— test scores should be based on the scales of
Common European Framework of Reference
Languages (1);

the
for

— because respect for linguistic diversity is a core value of
the Indicator should be based
the European Union,
upon data concerning the knowledge of all the official
languages of
the European Union taught as foreign
languages in the Union; but for practical reasons it
would be advisable, in the first round of data-gathering,
for tests to be made available in those official languages
of the European Union that are most widely taught in
the Member States, to the extent that they provide a
sufficiently large sample of testees;

— Member States shall

themselves determine which of

those official languages are to be tested;

— the Indicator should assess competence in the four
productive and receptive skills; but for practical reasons
it would be advisable, in the first round of data-gath-
for tests to be made available in the three
ering,
language skills which may be assessed most readily (i.e.
listening comprehension, reading comprehension and
writing);

— the testing methodology should be made available to
those Member States who wish to use it for their own
development of tests in other languages;

— appropriate

contextual

information to help assess

underlying factors should also be gathered;

— data should be gathered on competences in first and

second foreign languages:

(1) ‘Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning,

teaching, assessment’, as developed by the Council of Europe.

25.7.2006

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 172/3

INVITES the Commission to:

— set up, at the earliest opportunity, an Advisory Board (the
‘EILC Advisory Board’) composed of a representative of
each Member State and one representative of the Council of
Europe, whose mandate shall be to advise the Commission
on technical matters, such as:

— the specification of the tender for the creation of the

testing instruments;

— the assessment of the work of the contractor;

— the appropriate arrangements, standards and technical
protocols for data-gathering activities in the Member
States, taking into consideration the need to prevent
undue administrative and financial burdens for
the
Member States;

— in order to assist Member States to define the organisational
and resource implications for them, give this Board the
initial task of bringing forward a timetable for the work

and a more detailed description of the construction and
administration of the tests, including:

— sample size;

— preferred testing method, and

— preferred arrangements

for administering the tests,

taking the possibilities of e-testing into account;

— the minimum sample

should determine
size
whether a test for a particular language shall be made
available to Member States;

that

— report back in writing to the Council by the end of 2006
on the progress of work and, if appropriate, on any issues
outstanding;

INVITES Member States to:

— take all necessary steps to carry forward the process of

establishing the EILC.