European Language Equality: A Strategic Agenda for Digital Language Equality

This open access book presents a comprehensive collection of the European Language Equality (ELE) project's results, its strategic agenda and roadmap with key recommendations to the European Union on how to achieve digital language equality in Europe by 2030. The fabric of the EU linguistic landscape comprises 24 official languages and over 60 regional and minority languages. However, language barriers still hamper communication and the free flow of information. Multilingualism is a key cultural cornerstone of Europe, signifying what it means to be and to feel European. Various studies and resolutions have found a striking imbalance in the support of Europe's languages through technologies, issuing a call to action.

Following an introduction, the book is divided into two parts. The first part describes the state of the art of language technology and language-centric AI and the definition and metrics developed to measure digital language equality. It also presents the status quo in 2022/2023, i.e., the current level of technology support for over 30 European languages. The second part describes plans and recommendations on how to bring about digital language equality in Europe by 2030. It includes chapters on the setup and results of the community consultation process, four technical deep dives, an overview of existing strategic documents and an abridged version of the strategic agenda and roadmap.

The recommendations have been prepared jointly with the European community in the fields of language technology, natural language processing, and language-centric AI, as well as with representatives of relevant initiatives and associations, language communities and regional and minority language groups. Ensuring appropriate technology support for all European languages will not only create jobs, growth and opportunities in the digital single market. Overcoming language barriers in the digital environment is also essential for an inclusive society and for providing unity in diversity for many years to come.

這本開放存取的書籍呈現了歐洲語言平等（ELE）計畫的全面成果，以及其對歐盟的戰略議程和路線圖，並提出了關於如何在2030年前實現歐洲數位語言平等的關鍵建議。歐盟語言景觀的結構包括24種官方語言和60多種地區和少數民族語言。然而，語言障礙仍然阻礙著溝通和資訊的自由流動。多語言是歐洲的重要文化基石，代表著成為歐洲人的意義。各種研究和決議發現，歐洲語言在技術支援方面存在明顯的不平衡，呼籲採取行動。

在簡介之後，本書分為兩個部分。第一部分描述了語言技術和以語言為中心的人工智慧的最新發展狀況，以及用於衡量數位語言平等的定義和指標。它還介紹了2022/2023年的現狀，即對30多種歐洲語言的技術支援水平。第二部分描述了如何在2030年前實現歐洲數位語言平等的計劃和建議。其中包括有關社區諮詢過程的設置和結果、四個技術深入探討的章節、現有戰略文件的概述，以及戰略議程和路線圖的摘要。

這些建議是與歐洲語言技術、自然語言處理和以語言為中心的人工智慧領域的社群，以及相關倡議和協會的代表、語言社群和地區和少數民族語言群體共同準備的。確保對所有歐洲語言提供適當的技術支援，不僅可以在數位單一市場中創造就業、增長和機會，還對於建立包容的社會和提供多年來的多樣性統一至關重要。

Prof. Georg Rehm works as a Principal Researcher in the Speech and Language Technology Department of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Berlin. He is the Co-coordinator of the EU project European Language Equality (ELE) and was the Coordinator of the EU project European Language Grid (ELG). He has been involved as Coordinator or Principal Investigator in more than 20 large-scale research projects, including QURATOR, OpenGPT-X and NFDI for Data Science and AI. Prof. Rehm holds an MA in Computational Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Osnabrück and a PhD in Computational Linguistics from the University of Gießen. He has authored, co-authored or edited around 200 research publications and organised more than 30 scientific events. In 2018, Prof. Rehm was awarded the honorary appointment as a DFKI Research Fellow for his outstanding scientific achievements. In 2021, he was appointed honorary professor for his outstanding achievements in research and education at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Prof. Andy Way is a Full Professor in the School of Computing at Dublin City University, and Deputy Director of ADAPT, the SFI-funded Centre for Digital Content Technology, in Dublin, having previously also been a director of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL). Prof. Way has been the lead researcher on thirteen EU projects, including European Language Equality and SignON, and has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers. His research interests include all aspects of machine translation: statistical MT, example-based MT, neural MT, rule-based MT, hybrid models of MT, MT evaluation, teaching MT, etc. He was the recipient of the 2015 DCU President's Research Award for Science and Engineering, and in 2019 received the prestigious Award of Honour from the International Association for Machine Translation.

Prof. Georg Rehm在德國人工智能研究中心（DFKI）的語音和語言技術部門擔任首席研究員，位於柏林。他是歐盟項目「歐洲語言平等」（ELE）的協調人，也是歐盟項目「歐洲語言網格」（ELG）的協調人。他曾擔任超過20個大型研究項目的協調人或首席研究員，包括QURATOR、OpenGPT-X和NFDI for Data Science and AI。Rehm教授擁有奧斯納布呂克大學的計算語言學和人工智能碩士學位，以及吉森大學的計算語言學博士學位。他撰寫、合著或編輯了約200篇研究論文，並組織了30多個科學活動。2018年，Rehm教授因其傑出的科學成就被授予DFKI研究員榮譽任命。2021年，他因在研究和教育方面的傑出成就被任命為洪堡大學的榮譽教授。

Prof. Andy Way是都柏林城市大學計算機學院的教授，也是由愛爾蘭科學基金會資助的數字內容技術中心ADAPT的副主任，之前還是下一代本地化中心（CNGL）的主任。Way教授曾擔任13個歐盟項目的首席研究員，包括歐洲語言平等和SignON，並發表了400多篇同行評審的論文。他的研究興趣包括機器翻譯的各個方面：統計機器翻譯、基於示例的機器翻譯、神經機器翻譯、基於規則的機器翻譯、混合模型的機器翻譯、機器翻譯評估、機器翻譯教學等。他獲得了2015年都柏林城市大學校長科學和工程研究獎，並於2019年獲得了國際機器翻譯協會的榮譽獎。