List of European Commission portfolios#Multilingualism
The Commissioner for Multilingualism is a member of the European Commission, in whose jurisdiction the issue of linguistic diversity is. Only since the Barroso Commission I from 2004, the Commissioner was also specifically responsible for education and culture in the field of languages; with the EU's 2007 enlargement multilingualism was spun off as a separate division. Incumbent had since the Romanian Leonard Orban. In the Barroso II Commission, which began its work in February 2010, multilingualism was placed back into the education department. Current incumbent is Androulla Vassiliou.
Responsibilities
Politically, the task pane is mainly focused on the promotion of language skills as a means for the mobility of European workers and the competitiveness in the common labor market. In addition, the Commissioner is also responsible for the rights of speakers of regional and minority languages and the languages of migrants. The Commissioner for Multilingualism shares with the Commission President, the competence for intercultural dialogue.
Administratively the Commissioner for Multilingualism, the General Translation, Joint Interpreting and Conference Service, and ( as far as issues of multilingualism affected) subject to the Publications Office of the European Union and the department 's policy on multilingualism in the Directorate General for Education and Culture. This corresponds to a total of 3,400 employees - about 15% of personnel body of the European Commission - and around 1% of the EU budget.