The ECML’s Professional Network Forum (PNF) held its annual meeting in Graz on 5 December.
The network is comprised of 16 international associations and institutions united by shared values and complementary expertise in language education and assessment. Cooperation is also underpinned by formal agreements between the respective members and the ECML.
On the occasion of the PNF’s 15th meeting, representatives from the following bodies attended: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL); the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA); the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE), the European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education (CercleS), the European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTE), the Evaluation and Accreditation of Quality in Language Services (EAQUALS), the European Civil Society Platform for Multilingualism (ECSPM), Education, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (EDiLiC), the European Parents' Association (EPA) and Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute of the University of Ottawa (OLBI), together with Anna Sole Mena from the European Commission and Aurelio la Torre from the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, attending as an Observer.
The meeting gave the network partners the opportunity to share information on their ongoing activities and identify potential synergies, as well as discovering more about the most pertinent developments relating to the European Commission and the ECML.
Among the developments presented was a new initiative coordinated by EAQUALS and ALTE. The Language Assessment Professionalisation Programme (LAPP), which helps language teachers/trainee teachers, develop their skills in assessing their students’ language proficiency. The programme, which is free of charge will be officially launched on 19 January 2026.
Recognising the added value and power of this unique cooperation platform, the members of the Forum discussed a possible joint initiative, the Forum partners also discussed a possible initiative aimed at convincing politicians and stakeholders in education of the increasing value of languages.
The meeting followed on from the previous day’s ECML-EC Colloquium, Graz ‘Multiple voices in the classroom: Harnessing the power of regional and minority languages in secondary education’ which was attended by a number of the partners.