All public-service television programmes in the European Union must be subtitled, the European Parliament has mandated. The Parliament vote, in the form of a written declaration, added that subtitles also help with foreign-language learning. Polish Socialist member Lidia Joanna Geringer De Oedenberg, who initiated the vote, said that partial or complete loss of hearing was a condition that affected more than 83 million people in the EU and that, given the aging of the European population, this problem would continue to grow. She called on the European Commission to put forward legislation obliging public-service broadcasters to insert subtitles as soon as possible. The BBC has already pledged to subtitle all its programmes by April 2008. With a skilled and experienced team of professional transcribers, Global Lingo is your natural partner for subtitling or closed captioning. To discuss your requirements further, please do not hesitate to contact us now.