Council of Europe

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• European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

Minority languages : experts to visit Sweden

A delegation of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is to visit Sweden from 22 to 26 April to monitor the country's implementation of the treaty.
During their visit to Stockholm, Kiruna and Pajala they will meet representatives of the Finnish, Sami, Meänkieli, Roma and Yiddish languages communities, including politicians, journalists, educationalists, as well as representatives of local and regional authorities, and of the national government.
On the basis of the information gathered, the Committee will prepare a report, if necessary proposing recommendations to be made to the Swedish authorities.

Draft programme
Sunday 21 April 2002: Travel to Stockholm and Kiruna

Monday 22 April 2002: Kiruna

Tuesday, 23 April 2002 Kiruna

Wednesday, 24 April 2002 Pajala

Thursday, 25 April 2002, Stockholm

Friday, 26 April 2002 National authorities

Charter on Regional or Minority Languages: application by Norway and Switzerland examined
Strasbourg, 23.11.2001: The Committee of Ministers has just adopted a recommendation on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Norway and Switzerland.The recommendation follows an assessment report prepared by the Charter's independent Committee of Experts, using information submitted periodically by the country concerned and by NGOs, as well as reports following on-the-spot visits by the committee.
Last September, the Committee of Ministers adopted its first recommendations in this field. Since then, four countries have been the subject of Recommendations : Croatia, Finland, the Netherlands and Hungary.
Concerning Norway, the Committee of Ministers recommends, inter alia, that Norway improve the situation of the North Sami language before judicial authorities and clarify the status of the Kven language. Dialogue and cooperation between representatives of all regional or minority languages in Norway should be strengthened and the authorities are encouraged to take steps to make the Charter's mechanism more transparent, through the effective publication of the periodical reports, as well as to provide information as to the rights and duties established through the Charter.
Concerning Switzerland, the Committee of Ministers recommends that the authorities, whether at federal, cantonal or municipal level, ensure that the Romansh-speaking community benefit fully from the protection provided by the Charter. It calls for the removal of legal and practical obstacles to the use of the Romansh and Italian languages to before judicial authorities in the Canton of Grisons and for the improvement of their use at the level of the federal administration.
The text of this recommendation and the Committee of Experts' reports will be available on the Internet site http://local.coe.int

Press Contact
Philippe Potentini, Council of Europe Press Service
Tel. +33 3 88 41 28 95  - Fax. +33 3 88 41 27 90
E-mail: PressUnit@coe.int

Colloque sur la France et « la charte europeenne des langues regionales ou minoritaires » (only available in French)
Strasbourg - 10.04.2002 - Les 11 et 12 avril prochains se tiendra à Strasbourg un Colloque sur le thème de « La Charte européenne des langues régionales ou minoritaires et la France». Cette rencontre, organisée conjointement par le Conseil de l'Europe et l'Université Robert Schuman, se déroulera dans les locaux de la Faculté de droit (1 Place d'Athènes, Amphithéatre Aubry et Rau).
Mme Florence Benoît-Rohmer, doyen de la Faculté de droit, et M. Philip Blair, Directeur de la Coopération pour la démocratie locale et régionale au Conseil de l'Europe, ouvriront le Colloque le 11 avril à 10h30.
La Charte européenne des langues régionales ou minoritaires, ouverte à la signature le 5 novembre 1992, est entrée en vigueur le 1^er mars 1998. Elle a été signée ou ratifiée, à ce jour, par plus de la moitié des Etats membres du Conseil de l'Europe. La France a signé la Charte le 7 mai 1999 mais à ce jour elle ne l'a toujours pas ratifiée.
La Charte est le seul instrument juridique international dont l'objectif principal est la protection des langues. Elle est née d'une prise de conscience de l'opinion publique européenne de l'importance de sauvegarder la diversité linguistique de l' Europe. Les pays européens sont en effet de plus en plus conscients du fait que la perte de ce patrimoine fragile affecterait un des éléments constitutifs de l'identité européenne.
En France la question de la ratification de la Charte a fait l'objet d'un débat. Le Colloque de Strasbourg vise, entre autres, à dissiper d'éventuels malentendus quant au but, à la nature et à l'objet de la Charte. Il devrait permettre de débattre de manière approfondie et sereine des questions constitutionnelles, institutionnelles et juridiques que soulève la Charte dans le contexte de la France. Dans cet esprit, le Colloque s'articulera autour des questions suivantes :
- quelle valeur attribuer à la diversité linguistique, en France notamment ?
- quelles sont les questions que soulève la Charte dans le cadre constitutionnel français ?
- les principes de la Charte sont-ils, en pratique, mis en ouvre en France, et dans quelle mesure ? Une table ronde examinera le cas particulier de l'Alsace.
Le Colloque est ouvert à la presse.
International conference "From Theory to Practice - The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages"
Strasbourg, 21.11.2001: On 30 November and 1 December, an international conference will be held in Noordwijkerhout (the Netherlands) on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This conference, organised jointly by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Council of Europe, will be held at the Golden Tulip Conference Hotel Leeuwenhorst.
Gijs de Vries, State Secretary of the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and Hans Christian Krüger, Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General, will open the conference on 30 November at 9.45 am. They will give a press conference at 9h15 together with Philippe Blair, Council of Europe Director of Co-operation for local and regional democracy.
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages came into force in March 1998. Since then, substantial progress has been made, both through an increasing number of signatures and ratifications, which have doubled over the past two years, and through the work of the Charter's Committee of Experts, which recently adopted its first six reports.
The Charter is the only international instrument whose principal aim is to protect languages. The current European Year of Languages emphasises the need to teach and promote all European languages, whether widely or less widely used. Regional or minority languages, however, clearly need special attention and the Charter provides a legal structure to meet this need. It is the responsibility of each state to ensure the Charter's implementation, but to a large degree this is achieved thanks to the efforts made by the various authorities concerned and the speakers of the languages themselves.
The aim of this conference is to look at the experience States Parties have gained over the years, to try to identify good practices for those states that are in the process of signing and ratifying the treaty and to determine how states can establish and maintain fruitful co-operation with the various key players in the implementation process established by the Charter. The detailed programme is available on request from the Press Unit, which can be contacted on the numbers given below, or from the Charter's website: http://local.coe.int.
The conference will provide a forum for discussion for the three main players with an active role to play in the operation of the Charter, namely the central authorities, local and regional authorities and non-governmental organisations.
The conference is open to the press. A press conference is scheduled for Friday 30 November at the Golden Tulip Conference Hotel Leeuwenhorst, Langelaan 3 - Noordwijkerhout. (schedule will be specified later on).
Press Contact
Philippe Potentini, Council of Europe Press Service
Tel. +33 3 88 41 28 95  - Fax. +33 3 88 41 27 90
E-mail: PressUnit@coe.int

Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages to visit Germany
Strasbourg, 19.10.2001 – A delegation from the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages has just started a visit to Germany for seven days from 18 to 24 October 2001. This visit is part of the process to monitor application of the Charter in Germany and follows a periodical report submitted by the German authorities to the Council of Europe.

During this visit, their first to Germany, the experts will have meetings with various federal, regional and local authorities, parliamentarians, researchers and representatives of the communities speaking Sater and Northern Frisian, Danish, Lower and Upper Sorbian, Low German and Romany. The delegation will visit Kiel, Flensburg, Bredstedt and Risum-Lindholm (Schleswig-Holstein), Berlin, Bautzen (Saxony) and Cottbus (Brandenburg).

The delegation will question the people whom it meets about any difficulties encountered with the Charter's application. On the basis of the information gathered, the committee will prepare a report, if necessary proposing recommendations to be made to the German authorities, which it will submit to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The latter will decide any follow-up action to be taken. The Committee of Experts' report will be made public after being discussed by the Committee of Ministers, unless Germany is against its publication.

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The Committee of Experts was established under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1992, which came into force in 1998. Fifteen Council of Europe member states are already bound by the Charter: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The Committee is made up of people from a variety of backgrounds: legal specialists, linguists, historians and experts on minority and language issues. It is responsible for assessing legislation in force and real practice regarding regional or minority languages. It bases its assessments on the periodical reports submitted by states and any other information obtained from organisations and associations legally established in the state concerned. The committee may request further information on matters which it considers are insufficiently dealt with in a periodical report and organise fact-finding visits to meet with the authorities, non-governmental organisations and any other competent bodies, with the aim of assessing the real situation of languages covered by the Charter. On the basis of the information gathered, it prepares its own report, in which it proposes recommendations to be made to the state concerned. This report is submitted to the Committee of Ministers, which may decide to publish it and to issue recommendations.

To date, the Committee of Experts' reports on five countries have already been published.

For more information, please consult the website: http://local.coe.int

Charter on regional and minority languages: application by Hungary examined

Strasbourg, 08.10.2001: The Committee of Ministers has just adopted a recommendation on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Hungary.

The recommendation follows an assessment report prepared by the Charter's independent Committee of Experts, using information submitted periodically by the country concerned, by NGOs and from reports following on-the-spot visits by the committee.

Last September, the Committee of Ministers adopted its first ever recommendations in this field. The three countries concerned were Croatia, Finland and the Netherlands.

For Hungary, the Committee of Ministers’ recommendation include establishing a policy for developing the Romani and Beas languages in public life. It also recommends strengthening the possibilities of using minority languages before the courts and in relations with the administration and developing in general the teaching in and of the minority languages.

Committee of Ministers supports use of regional and minority languages in member states

Strasbourg, 20.09.2001: The Committee of Ministers has just adopted its first ever recommendations on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Council of Europe member states.

The recommendations derive from assessment reports prepared by the Charter's Committee of Experts, using information submitted periodically by the countries concerned, by NGOs and from reports following on the spot visits by the committee.

The first sets of recommendations relate to three countries: Croatia, Finland and the Netherlands.

For Croatia, the Committee of Ministers' recommendations include the point that all possible administrative, institutional, legal and legislative steps are taken to encourage and safeguard the use of regional and minority languages.

Turning to Finland, Committee proposals include a number of immediate measures to strengthen the position of the Sami language in education and increase its use in the media. The use of Swedish - the least spoken official language - and Sami should also be encouraged in the judicial and administrative sectors and in health and social services.

In the case of the Netherlands, the Committee especially wants to encourage developments in teaching the Frisian language and its greater use in the judicial and administrative sectors and the audio-visual media.

You are welcome to consult the reports on the application of the Charter already made public.

The Parliamentary Assembly calls for establishing an annual European Day of Languages

Strasbourg, 28.09.2001: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe began the final morning of its autumn session by considering a report on "European Year of Languages" (EYL) prepared by Jacques Legendre (France, EDG) and presented by Lluis Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) on behalf of the Committee on Culture, Science and Education.

The debate took place just after the European Day of Languages (EDL), celebrated on 26 September 2001 in the 45 states that are participating in EYL 2001. The Assembly had joined in with EDL by exceptionally opening to the press and to upper secondary school pupils a meeting of its Committee on Culture, Science and Education (see press release No. 647 of 20 September 2001).

European Year of Languages 2001 is based on the principle that every language is unique, that all are equally valid as well as means of communication for those who use them as an essential part of their identity, and that this rich worldwide heritage of languages needs to be preserved. An increase in the number of people able to use several languages - a necessary response to changes in Europe - is one of the main objectives of EYL. Throughout our lives, all of us can, or should be able to, acquire some ability to communicate in, or even to master, several languages. The European Language Portfolio has been devised by the Council of Europe as a major instrument for enhancing language skills.

In a recommendation unanimously adopted at the end of the debate, the Assembly calls on member states to give encouragement to the introduction and use of the Portfolio and to urge all Europeans to achieve a certain level of proficiency in communicating in several languages, inter alia by promoting varied and innovative approaches.

It also recommends that the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe's decision-making body:

hold a European Day of Languages every year so as to pursue the aims of European Year of Languages 2001, as these aims are essentially long-term ones;
review the many worthwhile initiatives designed to promote and improve language learning that have resulted directly or indirectly from EYL, in order to develop these further, and to report back on this to the Assembly;
encourage member states to protect and promote regional, minority and lesser-used languages in order to guarantee linguistic and cultural diversity and to prevent their disappearance, particularly by calling on member states to sign and ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages;
call on member states which are parties to the European Cultural Convention and which have not yet done so to join the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the European Centre for Modern Languages (Graz), as soon as possible.

The Assembly finally requests the Committee of Ministers to call on member states to support and further to develop the Council of Europe's language policy initiatives for promoting the learning of several languages, cultural diversity and understanding among peoples and nations, and to encourage the relevant institutions to use the Common European Framework of Reference drawn up by the Council of Europe to develop their language policies.

The full text of the recommendation can be found at the following Internet site: http://stars.coe.fr/index_e.htm

Press Contact
Philippe Potentini, Council of Europe Press Service
Tel. +33 3 88 41 25 98  - Fax. +33 3 88 41 27 90
E-mail: PressUnit@coe.int