European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
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PRESS RELEASE
Council of Europe publishes report on minority languages in Hungary
Strasbourg 20 June 2007. The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers has today made public the third report on the situation of regional or minority languages in Hungary.
On the basis of this report, the Council of Europe calls on Hungary to improve its legislative framework in favour of minority language protection. In particular, it asks the Hungarian authorities to actively promote the establishment of further bilingual schools at all stages of education and to increase accordingly the number of teachers able to teach subjects in these languages.
Further to the report, the Committee of Ministers has adopted a series of recommendations addressed to Hungary. These include inter alia:
- improvement of the financial situation of minority language education and increased stability of resourcing;
- improvement of the offer of minority language programmes in the media;
- improvement of the conditions for the transferral of educational and cultural bodies and institutions to minority self-governments.
The report has been drawn up by a committee of independent experts which monitors the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
In Hungary, 14 regional or minority languages are protected under the Charter: Armenian, Beás, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Romany, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian.
Further information can also be found on the Charter's website (www.coe.int/minlang), or by contacting the Charter Secretariat (Council of Europe, F-67075 Strasbourg, DG1.Minlang@coe.int, Tel. +33 (0)3 88 41 34 48)