SPEECH/02/474
Viviane Reding
Member of the European Commission responsible for Education
and Culture
The future of regional and minority
languages in the European Union
Conference on creating a common structure for promoting
historical linguisitc Minorities within the European Union
Helsinki, 11 October 2002
Mr Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank you first of all for giving me this opportunity to speak to you on
a subject that, as many of you here know, is very close to my heart. I come from
Luxembourg, where we speak Lëtzebuergesch, one of Europe’s less widely spoken
languages, for want of a better expression. Of course it’s not our fault if there are
only three hundred thousand of us. But as you know, whether it is spoken by three
hundred thousand or three hundred million people, every language is a great
language for the those who speak it as their mother tongue. Our mother tongue is
the language of our deepest feelings and our strongest emotions, the voice of our
most intimate thoughts. It is the language of our hearts. It is the means of
expression and transmission of our culture, our traditions, our whole outlook on the
world. Coming from a particular place, having a particular way of life, participating in
a particular culture and sharing a language that expresses this experience in a
unique and inimitable way: this is not something you can cast off like old clothes. It
is woven into the very fabric of your being, it is what makes you who you are.
Respect for diversity is one of the founding principles of the European Union. This is
now explicitly recognised in Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which
tells us that: “The Union shall respect cultural, religious and linguistic diversity”.
Already, the founding fathers of the European Community had a very ambitious
vision. They wanted to create - for the first time in history – an economic and
political space in which no single culture or language would dominate. Rather, they
wanted Europe to be a place where a multiplicity of languages and cultures could
flourish in a climate of mutual respect. To help us achieve this, article 151 of the EC
Treaty gives the European Community the task of contributing to the flowering of
the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional
diversity. It also commits the EC to taking cultural aspects into account in all its
actions.
Cultural and linguistic diversity is a defining characteristic of Europe. Europe is, and
has always been, a patchwork of cultural and linguistic identities. And Europe’s
national boundaries do not always follow the underlying cultural and linguistic
divisions. All European countries contain communities that cherish alternative
linguistic and cultural identities, despite all the pressures towards uniformity.
The European Union has been active in supporting its regional and minority
languages since 1983. EU support has taken two forms. From the very beginning
we were the main source of funding for the European Bureau for Lesser Used
Languages. In recent years, EBLUL has received some eighty percent of its annual
budget from the European Union. The EU has also been the main financial backer
of the Mercator information network.
In addition to this, from 1983 to 2000, we awarded grants for projects promoting and
safeguarding regional and minority languages. These have covered the full range of
actions relevant to language revitalisation. Education has been the main focus of
attention, accounting for over half of project funding. The remainder has been
shared equally between culture, media, direct language promotion and essential
linguistic resources such as grammars and dictionaries.
Since 1998, it is no longer possible to fund activities on a permanent basis without a
formal action programme. From 1999, the European Bureau of Lesser Used
Languages and the Mercator network have been funded, alongside many other
NGOs operating in the educational and cultural sectors, as Institutions of European
Interest.
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2001, the European Year of Languages, was an important watershed for language
policy in Europe. One of its key objectives was celebrating and raising awareness
about the richness of linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe. In this context, it
provided funding opportunities for projects involving regional and minority
languages. Nearly one in ten projects co-funded by the European Union focused
exclusively or mainly on regional and minority languages. And a far greater
percentage of projects included regional and minority languages among other
languages targeted.
The European Year of Languages situated the theme of linguistic diversity,
including regional and minority languages, in the wider context of languages as a
European issue: the need for Europe to make the most of its multilingualism and the
need for Europeans to be more multilingual. If we wish Europeans to take full
advantage of all that Europe has to offer, and if we wish to maximise Europe’s
potential for economic growth, for social cohesion and for political stability, we need
more people learning more languages than they do today – and better too.
The European Year of Languages was a success in Finland. Among its sponsors
were Finland Post, which issued stamps in honour of the Year, and the Finnish
Broadcasting Corporation, which hosted the Finnish EYL opening event and gave
special prominence to language learning via radio and television throughout the
year. Television advertisements aimed at encouraging language learning reached a
wide public and the year was well covered in local and national newspapers.
Specific projects financed by the European Union targeted sign languages, adult
language learning, teaching subjects through the medium of a foreign language,
language learning in vocational training and promoting language learning at regional
level.
Throughout Europe, the European Year of Languages was celebrated through a
wide variety of actions aimed at drawing public attention to the diversity of
languages and the advantages of multilingualism in a dynamic and often amusing
way. But of course it had its more serious side too. Besides its impact on public
opinion, the European Year also stimulated a great deal of debate and discussion
among specialists, policy makers and practitioners at national and European level.
Some themes stand out: the advantages of multilingualism; the equal value of all
languages as an integral part of our common cultural heritage; the right of citizens
to use their own languages; the need for local provision of high quality language
learning for a broad range of languages; the benefits of language skills to society, to
business and to individuals; and the need for action at national and EU level to
promote linguistic diversity and life-long language learning. Languages were also
closely linked with issues of equal opportunities and social inclusion.
I was particularly gratified to see so many of our key policy messages being taken
up and given a wide hearing in 2001. Mother tongue plus at least two other
Community languages was stressed as the minimum qualification for young people
leaving formal education, as was the importance of continuity throughout the
education system and beyond. Moreover, there is a growing body of opinion in
favour of treating foreign languages as a basic skill alongside literacy, numeracy
and ITC among the core objectives of European education.
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A number of positive developments took place during or around the European Year
of Languages. Several Member States defined age thresholds for the introduction of
foreign languages into the curriculum or, where these existed already, lowered the
starting age. There were encouraging signs of moves towards a national language
policy in some countries. In the area of regional and minority languages, Austria,
Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom ratified the European Charter of Regional
or Minority Languages in 2001. At European level, the Committee of the Regions
adopted on 13 June 2001 an own initiative opinion on the Promotion and Protection
of Regional and Minority Languages. And on 13 December, the European
Parliament adopted a resolution on regional and lesser-used European languages.
We do not claim the credit for all of these developments, but they greatly
contributed to making 2001 a language-friendly year. One message that came
across strongly in the aftermath of the European Year of Languages is the general
desire that the momentum generated by the event should not be lost. The European
Union should build on the structures, networks, projects, initiatives, know-how and
good will generated by the year to develop a coherent long-term strategy for
linguistic diversity and language learning.
This desire was given official expression on the fourteenth of February 2002 when
the Council of the European Union adopted a Resolution on “The promotion of
linguistic diversity and language learning in the framework of the implementation of
the European Year of Languages”. Amongst other things, this resolution invites the
Commission to “draw up proposals for actions for the promotion of linguistic
diversity and language learning”.
In response to this invitation, my services will undertake a wide-ranging consultation
of the many individuals and organisations concerned with or affected by languages
and language learning in Europe, whether as decision-makers, practitioners,
experts or beneficiaries. The basis of this consultation will be a Discussion
Document to be published later this year that will draw upon issues highlighted both
by the European Year and by our decade of involvement in promoting foreign
language learning and supporting linguistic diversity. The Document will be
circulated widely to stakeholders in EU language policy, who will be invited to
express their opinion on the issues raised.
This paper will outline the policy context of our actions, and go on to address the
various aspects of linguistic diversity and language learning in a European
perspective, as well as raising a number of key questions about what action the
European Union should take in these different areas. The outcome of this process
will be a Communication to the European Parliament and the Council in mid-2003
on an Action Plan to promote linguistic diversity and language learning.
I am committed to adopting a coherent and proactive approach across all our
existing actions and programmes to complement the work of the Member States.
We are aiming to look at the whole range of EU actions and initiatives that have an
impact on linguistic diversity and language learning and to draw them together in a
unified policy framework - not by creating a new programme and a budget line- but
by bringing together, coordinating and making visible all relevant activities across
the full range of our existing programmes and policies.
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We are now in the process of taking stock of our activities to date and considering
further ways and means of promoting linguistic diversity and language learning at a
European level. We are aiming to draw conclusions from everything the European
Union has done in the past decades to promote linguistic diversity, multilingualism
and language learning, in our education, training, culture, youth, and media
programmes, as well as in many other policy areas such as Information Society,
Regional Development and Social Policy.
As part of this process, we have launched a series of studies and evaluations
looking into different areas and aspects of our activities. One of these is a major
study on support for minority languages in Europe that will be published in the
coming months. This study identifies a wide range of Community programmes and
policies relevant to the vitality of regional and minority languages from which
minority language communities have obtained funding for a variety of initiatives
relevant to language protection and promotion.
The key questions that will be raised in the Discussion document are: How can the
European Union contribute to creating a language-friendly environment? How can it
help to encourage people to take advantage of the language-learning opportunities
that exist? How can Europe contribute to extending and improving language
learning?
What will be the future of regional and minority languages in the context of the
future Action Plan? It is here that consultation comes to the fore. We need to hear
what you have to say, we have to draw conclusions from our past activities in this
field and to analyse the outcomes of the European Year of Languages and all the
debate and discussion that it stimulated. However, one conclusion already emerges
quite strongly. After much reflection and analysis, we do not feel that a separate
programme for minority languages offers the most advantageous policy context for
our future actions in this field. Language is an issue that cuts across many policy
areas. Many of our policies have an impact on languages and language use.
Education, training, youth policy, culture and audiovisual policy most obviously, but
other areas too such as regional and rural development, social policy, RTD play an
important role in the vitality of languages.
One thing is clear: regional and minority language communities do make
considerable use of a wide variety of EU policy instruments to promote projects with
an impact on their languages. We have information on a considerable number of
projects that have been financed on a far more ambitious scale than would have
been possible in the context of a dedicated minority languages action. We feel there
are more fruitful approaches than creating a separate programme for minority
languages that would in effect mirror, on a far smaller scale, activities that are
already provided for in other programmes and policies. This is not to say that
existing EU programmes and policies can address all the issues minority
communities face in safeguarding their languages, nor to say that minority
communities do not face specific obstacles in gaining access to some programmes.
However, it is these very issues that we must address. How do we enable minority
language communities to gain greater access to EU funding opportunities for
relevant projects, what barriers exist and how can they be overcome? This must be
the focus of our attention in the process of consultation and policy development in
preparation for the presentation of our Action Plan. This is all the more important, as
we are now entering the preparatory phase for the new generation of programmes
in the area of Education, Training, Youth, Culture and Media. It is essential that
such considerations be taken on board in designing tomorrow’s policy instruments
in this key field for the future of Europe and its regional and minority languages.
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We must also look at the role EU-funded organisations like the European Bureau
for Lesser Used Languages and the Mercator Centres can play in this context. If
regional and minority language communities are to gain greater benefit from a wider
range of EU programmes and policies, then greater effort must be devoted to
informing them about the funding opportunities that exist and assisting them in
developing projects, in finding suitable partners and in negotiating the sometimes
complex application procedures.
We are at the beginning of a consultation process on our future policy for linguistic
diversity and language learning, and we look to you as stakeholders to help us find
appropriate responses to the challenges Europe faces in this area. On this note, I
would invite all those of you who represent organisations with an interest in such
issues to make contact with the members of my staff who are with me here today to
ensure you receive a copy of the discussion document when it comes out and have
an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to our reflection on what the European
Union can do to promote linguistic diversity and language learning.
Thank you.
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