The European Union and Lesser-Used Languages
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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT WORKING PAPER THE EUROPEAN UNION AND LESSER-USED LANGUAGES Education and Culture Series EDUC 108 EN This document is published in English only. This Report has been drawn up by the CIEMEN (Centre Internacional Escarré per a les Minories Ètniques i les Nacions) on behalf of the Directorate-General for Research of the European Parliament. The authors: Messrs. Joan Becat, Dimitris Christopoulos, Jarmo Lainio, Marc Leprêtre, Peter Nelde, Padraig O Riagain, Antoni Strubell, Constantinos Tsitselikis, Jaume Vernet, Sergi Vilaró, Aina Villalonga, Nico Weber, Peter Weber and Glyn Williams. Sr. Miquel Strubell, Director of the Humanities programme, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain (Report Co-ordinator). Responsible official: Ms Pernille Winther, Principal Administrator Directorate-General for Research Tél.: (352) 4300-22688 Fax: (352) 4300-27720 E-mail address:[email protected] Manuscript completed in July 2002. Paper copies can be obtained Publications service through: Tel.: (352) 43 00-24053/20347 Fax: (352) 43 00-27722 E-mail: [email protected] Luxembourg, European Parliament, July 2002 The opinions expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorised provided the source is acknowledged and the publisher is given prior notice and sent a copy. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT WORKING PAPER THE EUROPEAN UNION AND LESSER-USED LANGUAGES Education and Culture Series EDUC 108 EN 07-2002 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ………………………………………………………….1 PART ONE: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND LESSER-USED LANGUAGES Chapter 1: An outline of initiatives taken at EU level to support minority languages over the last ten years 1.Introduction ................................................................................................. 22 1.1. An overview of relevant EU programmes................................................. 27 Chapter 2: The Community Action in favour of regional or minority languages in the EU. An evaluation of the projects funded, with particular reference to the reasons for their success or failure 2.1. Community Action in favour of the regional or minority languages in the EU: background.................................................................... 34 2.2. The calls for proposals under budget lines B3-1006 and B3-1000............. 35 2.3. EU co-funded projects, by fields of action and Member State................... 37 2.4. Evaluation of projects co-funded by the EU under budget lines B3-1006 and B3 1000, and examples of good practice............................ 38 Chapter 3: Proposals and considerations on the way forward for the European Commission, in the light of the European Court of Justice judgment of 12 May 1998 3. Introduction................................................................................................. 50 3.1. The current issue: European concern about language diversity ................. 52 3.2. Language pluralism and culture................................................................ 53 3.3. The general bases for a European language policy.................................... 58 3.4. Conclusion............................................................................................... 64 Chapter 4: Conclusions and recommendations .................................................... 66 3 PART TWO: AN OVERVIEW OF THE MINORITY LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EU: GREECE, SPAIN, FINLAND, FRANCE, IRELAND, LUXEMBOURG, UNITED KINGDOM Introduction .................................................................................................... 72 1. Greece ........................................................................................................ 74 Introduction ........................................................................................... 74 Albanian ............................................................................................... 75 Aromanian ............................................................................................ 76 (Slavo)Macedonian, Bulgarian .............................................................. 77 Pomak .................................................................................................. 78 Turkish ................................................................................................. 80 2. Spain.......................................................................................................... 82 Introduction ........................................................................................... 82 Aragonese (Fabla) ................................................................................. 83 Asturian (Bable) .................................................................................... 84 Basque................................................................................................... 86 Catalan .................................................................................................. 90 Galician ................................................................................................ 94 Occitan .................................................................................................. 98 Portuguese........................................................................................... 100 Tamazight (Berber).............................................................................. 101 3. Finland .................................................................................................... 103 Introduction ......................................................................................... 103 Romany .............................................................................................. 104 Sami ................................................................................................... 106 Swedish .............................................................................................. 108 4. France...................................................................................................... 111 Introduction ......................................................................................... 111 Basque................................................................................................. 112 Breton.................................................................................................. 114 Catalan ................................................................................................ 116 Corsican .............................................................................................. 118 Dutch................................................................................................... 119 German................................................................................................ 120 Occitan ............................................................................................... 122 5. Ireland ..................................................................................................... 124 6. Luxembourg............................................................................................ 127 7. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...................... 131 Introduction ......................................................................................... 131 Cornish................................................................................................ 132 Gaelic ................................................................................................. 133 Irish .................................................................................................... 135 Scots ................................................................................................... 137 Welsh ................................................................................................. 139 General references ............................................................................................... 142 4 Annexes ................................................................................................................ 147 Annex 1: Distribution of projects funded by budget lines B3-1006 and, later, B3-1000, by project type and Member State, 1995-2000. ............................. 147 Annex 2: Examples of good practice. Details ......................................................... 149 Annex 3: Other material associated with the conclusions and recommendations of the Report ............................................................................. 164 Annex 4: Declarations made by EU Member States at the time of ratifying or signing the Charter .............................................................................. 167 5 The European Union and Lesser-Used Languages 6 PE 318.587 The European Union and Lesser-Used Languages EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART ONE: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND LESSER-USED LANGUAGES Chapter 1 Over 50 autochthonous groups in the EU speak other languages than those spoken by the majority of each State’s population. Nearly 40 million citizens speak such languages, which have different legal statuses and social and demographic strength; some have in the past faced vicious ideological attacks. The term ‘minority’ refers to the social group or community that share the language, but not to the language itself. In some transfrontier cases