ELBEP aims to promote intercultural dialogue and meet the communication needs ofprison staff members in the European countries, regarding many foreign prisoners theyencounter in their work environment. Operational definition of foreign prisoners withinthe scope of ELBEP covers prisoners who are sentenced and also imprisoneddetainees in the trial process. The project is designed to meet the criteria for theAssociation of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) A1 level in order to developproducts that can be certified and accredited in many European countries. ELBEPfocuses on Russian, Polish, Spanish, Greek and Turkish language needs of the EUprison staffs, since foreign prisoners speaking these native languages composeimportant percentages in European prisons. Overall, the expected impact of teachingbeginners level second languages to European prison staffs, via flexible Open andDistance Learning (ODL) environments, proposes an alternative to solve thecommunication problems. Concentrating on this objective, ELBEP shall promoteintercultural understanding, tolerance for diversity and lead to a suitable environmentwhere rehabilitation and adult education of prisoners are achievable.The project ELBEP aims to fulfill the following objectives: (1) Explore the condition ofcurrent language barriers between prison staffs and foreign language speakingprisoners in European prisons, (2) Determine the level of awareness and perception ofprison staffs for the need to learn second languages to be able to communicate withforeign language speaking prisoners throughout European Prisons, (3) Examine thecurrent competency of prison staffs in second language skills, (4) Clarify a range ofsupportive possibilities in European prisons to design ODL environments to providesecond language education, (5) Develop and deliver Second Language e-LearningPortals via ODL media to European Prison staffs, (6) Evaluate the impact of theprogramme through qualitative and quantitative measurement tools. The outputs of theproject are five online language portals at A1 level (Russian, Polish, Spanish, Greek andTurkish).