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One of the objectives of the European programme Terra was to promote
thematic discussions among the authorities responsible for spatial
development policies throughout Europe. The VEV partnership was
developed in this context, and its 60 projects cover the whole
range of aspects of management of an inland waterway, from the
method of bank stabilisation to the organisation of archives…
It is not inconceivable, however, that profitable exchanges take
place between a Lombardy operator and his Scottish, Swedish and
French colleagues, without specific supporting actions on their
respective languages? In the context of its close partnership
with the Ministry of Equipment and Transport (MET), the CAL thus
made its know-how and tools avalable to all the European partners.
Clearly, it would have been unrealistic to expect widespread use
of each other’s languages by all the partners within a period
of 18 months, but each action undertaken by the CAL teams will
have played a significant role in forging better exchanges, transcending
the national, linguistic or cultural borders :
— exchange programme between the Scottish, Walloon and French
lock-keepers;
— production of a 54-minute film in collaboration with the
RTBF;
— publication of three trilingual “ActuaPress Plus”
issues dedicated to the VEV canals as well as to the areas they
cross and to the related cultural aspects.
ActuaPress Plus is a monthly trilingual thematic review. Considering
that multilingualism is an irreversible phenomenon in this part
of Europe, the CAL’s objective is to encourage the entire
population to become familiar with each other’s language.s
The basic languages of ActuaPress Plus are French, Dutch and English.
The reader finds articles written in a second language, probably
studied at school (English or Dutch), and other articles in another
foreign language, which enables him or her to be confronted with
another language even if this was not the reader’s specific
intention. Last but not least, the reader will also of course
find one or more articles written in his or her mother tongue
(together with the translation of the difficult words into the
other languages…) The reader is thus reminded of the fact
that his mother tongue is also a foreign language to other readers.
The philosophy and the practical concept of this publication fully
meet the aims of Terra-VEV.
The idea was to benefit from the reading audience of “ActuaPress
Plus” in Belgium, Great Britain and the Netherlands (approx.
6000 subscribers plus individual sales amounting to approx. 1000
per issue), to give a wealth of information about these canals,
at the same time encouraging people to reflect on the issues of
conservation of historic canals.
— Published in March 2000: “Developing Networks: Lombardy-Highlands”.
— Published in June 2000: “A tale of two canals”.
— Published in September 2000: “Two canals listed by
Unesco”.
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