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While Europe supports linguistic diversity, endangered languages remain threatened

The consultation proved to be one of the most popular public surveys ever carried out on EU policies. «This is the first time that citizens have been invited to discuss language policy and to feel involved in the final result» said the European Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban. «Multilingualism is a cross-cutting policy, involving people at every level of society. It is my intention to be the catalyst of this policy». He continued that regional or minority languages should «not be neglected just because they don't have official status», and that the Commission's multilingualism policy is «able to create a structure for all to participate in».

Most respondents to the online survey shared the views that: the linguistic diversity of the EU is an asset to be safeguarded; the media should promote an intercultural society model, focusing on tolerance, not on confrontation; the costs related to working in 23 official languages (along with some use of Basque, Catalan, Galician and Welsh), are worth paying. Finally, the consultation revealed a strong support for less widely used languages with a suggestion from contributors that the EU be able to sanction Member States that infringe linguistic rights.

However, while a lot of encouraging points were made by the Commission, around one third of delegates voiced their concerns over some of Europe's lesser used languages, and that there needs to be EU support for those languages that need the most help. Some delegates left the hearing saying that the linguistic rights issue of Europe's endangered languages had been sidelined.

Furthermore, it was pointed out that while stateless or regional languages are spoken by over 10% of the EU's population, they receive less than 1% of EU funding, down from 5% in 2000 according to the Smile Report.

These facts mark the new scenery faced by less widely used languages. While good progress and access to funding is facilitated by languages with autonomous governments such as Basque, Catalan and Welsh. Those without governments such as Breton, Sorbian and Inari Sami are actually in a worse position than pre-2004, when the Commission finally allowed for all European languages to participate in their projects. While this looks fine on paper, it is meant to be a replacement for the direct funding from the EU as happened prior to 2000 under a specific B-line budget.

EBLUL, which was able to lobby and set up language projects, is no longer funded. And while the Commission says that all languages have access to EU funds, many small language communities simply cannot meet the thresholds, such as the co-funding required, to set up a project. Often these language communities need an injection of cash just for some teaching materials - not for a 1 million euro project.

Moreover, those languages that face a hostile member state, such as Breton and Occitan with France, have no access to state or EU funds and still have to rely on volunteers. In a Europe that proclaims its "respect for linguistic diversity" it is obscene that the EU's lack of direct support for its endangered languages is helping to undermine that very diversity.

The Hungarian Romanian MEP Csaba Sógor expressed his concern that there will always be too much focus on the "big" languages to the detriment of others, pointing out that some EU countries still have not ratified the ECRML. His comments were echoed by other speakers on the broader topic of why should the EU support the learning of huge global languages such as Mandarin or Arabic (as recommended by the business lobby) when Europe's own "smaller" languages needed more support.

Another general theme discussed was that in using a business driven model to promote language learning, in theory to make Europe "more competitive". It may not increase, respect or promote linguistic diversity at all, but simply encourage people to learn global languages only, thereby strengthening English, French and Mandarin to the detriment of other languages.

Jacques De Decker, the permanent secretary of the Belgian Royal Academy of French Language and Literature who helped compile the Group of Intellectuals Report, said that regional or minority languages are «an example of plurality», and that the EU «should not let any languages die out», adding that «we have the ability to save all languages».

The outcomes of the discussions will feed into a new Commission Communication to be adopted in September of this year, the purpose of which will be to discuss and help define the role of languages in Europe.

Consultation and documentation relating to the public hearing: ec.europa.eu


Davyth Hicks
Editor-in-Chief, Eurolang, minority language agency.