When: 13 May 2024, 9:30AM – 12.30PM CEST
Where: Polak Room, Residence Palace, Brussels
Event Programme
Register online
To mark world Portuguese Language Day, proclamimed by UNESCO in 2019, the Embassy of Portugal in Belgium and the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC) cordially invite you to this seminar, which will address the relevance of multilingualism, its multifaceted challenges, such as the rapid development of artificial intelligence, and the role of the Portuguese language in Belgium, in Europe and in the World.
Programme
09h30 – Welcome Coffee
10h00 – Opening remarks
- Sherri Aldis, Director, UNRIC
- António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN (pre-recorded message)
10h10 – Keynote speech
- Sven Gatz, Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region Government, responsible for the Promotion of Multilingualism
10h25 – Panel discussion: Multilingualism in Europe: an asset for the future?
- Moderator – Caroline Petit, UNRIC Deputy Director
- UNESCO representative (tbc)
- Anna Solé Mena, Expert in Multilingualism, European Commission
- Pauline van der Straten Waillet, Logopedist and Chargée de cours, ULB
11h15 – Coffee Break
11h35 – Panel discussion – The Portuguese Language in Belgium, in Europe and in the World
- Moderator – Ana Corga Vieira, Camões IP Lecturer, ULB
- Ana Paula Fernandes, President of Camões I.P. (tbc)
- João Mendes Pereira, Ambassador of Brazil to Belgium
- António Branco, PORTULAN CLARIN Research Infrastructure for the Science and Technology of Language (Director General) and University of Lisbon (Professor)
12h25 – Closing remarks
- Jorge Cabral, Ambassador of Portugal to Belgium
