Individual multilingualism (a person's capacity to communicate in several languages) iscrucial for the development of the EU. Europe has several language traditions whichtransmit rich, age-old cultures, but mainly comprises monolingual groups. It isimpossible to envisage European integration based on the gradual move to a singlelanguage, which would involve suppressing or marginalising the languages and culturesthat have built European history. However, multilingualism is difficult to build, andlearning languages other than his or her first language is a complex and very difficultprocess for anyone to undertake. Simply reforming educational curricula cannot solvethe problem.Positive regional language policies are required to awaken an interest in languages andthe cultures they transmit. These should aim to facilitate the learning of severallanguages and to enhance genuine multilingualism in most local and national contextsin Europe. The Kaleco project emerged as a result of observing that the countries thathave gained positive results in multilingualism have cultural policies that foster learninga second language.The consortium behind this project comprises several partners from countries in whichthe inhabitants have varying degrees of language skills, from Sweden and Estonia, withthe highest levels, to the UK and Italy, with the lowest. The partnership compriseseleven institutions of different kinds and with different aims (municipalities, universities,cultural associations, training bodies, educational institutions), from eight countries eachof which has several language groups among its population. The partnership will help tocreate synergies in multiple resources, compare different language approaches andpolicies, and develop experience of cooperation and exchange between differentsituations.The project aims to create and test a number of proposals or experiences to facilitatelanguage learning and to foster people’s desire to become multilingual. The results ofthe project will help to prepare a language platform suited to the various situations andbuild a sustainable network from which new projects can be launched.In the spirit of the project, we will use both English and French for communicationpurposes. However, our final aim is for each partner to be able to use their chosenlanguage and understand the languages spoken by the others.