Language training Language training has become an important issue in the drive towards the Europe of knowledge as defined in the decision taken by the European Council when it met in Lisbon in March 2000: “The European Union must become the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based community in the world by 2010”. The ORION Network emerges at a particularly appropriate time, when convergence and harmonisation of the European Higher Education area are right at the top of the educational agenda. However, countries whose languages are defined as falling into the “least widely used” category, may not necessarily benefit from the process. Although their universities and tertiary courses are recognised as excellent, their remoteness and their language may exclude them from taking advantage of the Bologna process. In ORION, the latest innovative technology has been used to create a Virtual Learning Environment in which language training plays a major role. An online marine environmental glossary in English, Greek, Portuguese and Swedish has been created, forming a major resource freely available. In addition, on the open-to-the-public pages of the website, there are language modules in basic Greek, Portuguese and Swedish, based on the marine environmental sciences subject area. Click here to see the ORION Language Learning Policy. The information on this site is subject to a disclaimer and a copyright notice