FULL VERSION - European Commission - Europa

(a) Constantly insisting that its institutions and member-states honour it treatyobligations;(b) Constantly bear in mind the needs of LUL communities when preparingprogrammes;(c) Actively supporting legal and other initiatives to help such languages e.g. theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and VOCES, the newlyestablished International Centre for the Study and Teaching of Lesser UsedLanguages in the University of Bremen 7 ;(d) Encouraging LUL communities to exchange information and share expertisethrough conferences, study visits, publications, and so on;(e) Support pilot projects to conserve and promote LULs, especially those mostendangered.The main recommendation I would make is one I made originally at a conference held atLeeuwenhorst, in the Netherlands, back in late November 2001 – the establishment of aEuropean Centre for Linguistic Diversity. This could be either an integral part of theEuropean Union structure or could be a semi-autonomous body, established as a JointProject with the Council of Europe. It would serve as a clearing-house for language planning,for data gathering and for the sharing of expertise. It would draw, not only on academia butalso on policy makers and practitioners in the field of language, be they from officialagencies, international organisations [e.g. OSCE, UNESCO] or from NGOs. Experts likeFrançois Grin have shown that to work language policies need to be effective, cost-effectiveand democratic. The proposed Centre would help all concerned to achieve this. Its serviceswould be made available for governments, be they national, regional or local, embarking onlanguage planning or endeavouring to accommodate linguistic diversity. I suggest that thecost of such a Centre could be quite modest but its achievements could be inestimable.[A couple of years later Michl Ebner MEP made a similar proposal in his report and motionfor resolution for the European Parliament. The main difference was that he used the wordAgency instead of Centre.]Minority Languages in the Russian Federation: The EU, in association with the Council ofEurope and the Russian Ministry for Regional Development has embarked on a JointProgramme to assist linguistic minorities in the Russian Federation. It is hoped that this willresult in Russia ratifying the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Work isproceeding satisfactorily and the obstacles, real or perceived, in the way of Russia ratifyingthe Charter are being addressed one by one. The JP has proved to be an enormous moraleboosterfor the linguistic minorities. As part of the JP a call for tenders for projects was made.It is hoped to support ca. 35-40 projects. No fewer than 307 applications have been received!The EU should consider extending the JP by another three years when it expires in 2012. Anew initiative might cover study visits by Russian minorities to see best practice is someEuropean regions and a twinning arrangement between LULs communities in the EU and theRF.Immigrant Languages: While the issues of autochthonous languages and those ofimmigrants are two entirely different social phenomena they interface in certain areas ofhuman rights. The EU might usefully draw up a code of best practice as to how immigrantsshould have access to educational and cultural facilities that would enable them to conservetheir own identity and transmit it to their children when they wish to do so.7http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/cestealul/about.aspxCivil Society Platform on Multilingualism 9APPENDIX to Policy Recommendations06/06/2011 – FINAL VERSION