The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is meeting in Strasbourg, France, for its 62nd plenary session during the week of 18-22 March 2019. Among other things, it will discuss the the evaluation reports on the application of the Charter in Luxembourg, Spain and the Slovak Republic.

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages provides for a control mechanism to evaluate how the Charter is applied in a State Party with a view to, where necessary, making recommendations for improving its legislation, policy and practices. The central element of this procedure is the Committee of Experts, set up under Article 17 of the Charter. Its principal purpose is to report to the Committee of Ministers on its evaluation of compliance by a Party with its undertakings, to examine the real situation of regional or minority languages in the State and, where appropriate, to encourage the Party to gradually reach a higher level of commitment.

Once adopted by the Committee of Experts, the evaluation reports are submitted to the authorities of the respective State Party for possible comments within a given deadline. Subsequently, the evaluation reports and any comments from the authorities concerned are submitted to the Committee of Ministers, together with suggestions for recommendations that, once adopted by the latter, will be addressed to the State Party.