The Council of Europe contributed its expertise in language policy and practice to the SIRIUS 3.0 Annual Policy Conference, held online on 19 May 2026, bringing together policymakers, researchers and practitioners to discuss multilingualism and linguistic inclusion of migrants in Europe.
The conference, organised by the SIRIUS Network, titled “Multilingual Education in Europe: Rethinking Language Policies for Migrant Students”, focused on ways to bridge the gap between policy and implementation by identifying examples of good practice in a variety of educational settings. The discussions built on the findings of a comparative policy report covering 15 European countries, prepared by the Migration Policy Group (MPG).
Sarah Breslin, Executive Director of the ECML and Head of Language Policy at the Council of Europe, participated in the roundtable discussion on “Multilingualism and Language Policies for Inclusion – Perspectives from Policymakers, Practitioners, and Researchers”.
The intervention and following discussion focused on multilingualism within school systems, with particular emphasis on how to make multilingual education a lived reality in schools and how to embed multilingual inclusion within education systems. Special attention was given to the role of teachers, who are increasingly expected to respond to linguistic diversity while supporting inclusion and a sense of belonging, and what schools need to do to better support them in this process. Sarah emphasised that schools must be safe environments where all children can flourish, and praised the excellent work of teachers, highlighting the importance of ongoing support through policy, teacher education, and practical resources to foster inclusion.
This intervention provided an opportunity to present Council of Europe resources and training opportunities: from both the ECML these included the “European portfolio for pre-primary educators” (PEPELINO), or “Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils” (RECOLANG), as well as the ECML-EC Training and Consultancy activity “Supporting multilingual classrooms”. From the Language Policy Programme, Sarah talked about the new Planning and Reflection Survey Tool which is designed to help member states reflect on and assess the extent to which plurilingual and intercultural education is being implemented at lower secondary level, in line with the Recommendation on the Importance of Plurilingual and Intercultural Education for Democratic Culture (Recommendation CM/Rec (2022) 1), and the related Policy Toolbox.
