October 2005

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CALL FOR EU FUNDING GUARANTEE FOR LESSER USED LANGUAGES

October 2005 - Catalan MEP Bernat Joan called for guaranteed European funding to support lesser used languages in a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg held the 24th October 2005.

MEPs debated proposals for the CULTURE 2007 scheme which is set up to support diverse cultural projects in Europe in the period 2007-2013. MEPs asked for a total of €600 million made available for the whole scheme and Bernat Joan argued for specific support for minority languages. Speaking in the debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Bernat Joan said: "In looking at the financial proposals that go with the Culture 2007 scheme, many of us are gravely concerned about an issue that has not yet been properly recognised by the European Union: that is the promotion of minorized languages and minority languages within EU”.

Bernat Joan also made specific reference to the CoE European Charter for regional and Minority Languages: “according to the Charter for Minority Languages, each linguistic community has the right to maintain, to develop and to pass on to future generations its own language. In the European Union, we have official languages, minority languages and languages, like Catalan, that, being majority languages in their own country, are not a part of the first or of the second group”.

Mr. Joan concluded that “for the sake of all of these languages, for the sake of linguistic diversity in Europe, the EU has a duty to provide financial support. I know that what I propose is contrary to the Jacobinist language policy, which is prevalent in some European states, but by supporting lesser used languages we promote diversity, democracy and freedom. And we promote also the maintenance of a real ecology of languages in the European Union."