STOP LANGUAGES IN EUROPE
FROM BECOMING EXTINCT!

The story of Goaitsen

Goaitsen has lived his whole life in the small
Frisian village of Wyns, in the Netherlands.

Now he is retired. One day he accidentally leaves the stove on. The kitchen is already burning by the time he notices, so he calls the 112 emergency number. A friendly lady, Anita, answers the phone, but since the emergency line was recently centralised to another part of the country, she does not speak Frisian and Goaitsen has trouble making himself understood in Dutch. As a consequence Anita sends the firemen to Wynaldum instead of Wyns, and Goaitsen’s house burns down to the ground, before the firemen eventually arrive one hour late.

His story proves how crucial it can be to use your mother tongue, and make yourself understood in your mother tongue. In Wales (United Kingdom) for example there is always at least one person on each shift who can speak Welsh at the emergency centre. This is definitely a good practice worth sharing and promoting in the Netherlands and in the entire EU.

According to UNESCO, the world has over 6000 languages. If nothing is done, half of these will disappear by the end of the 21st century. Humanity would lose not only a cultural wealth but also important ancestral knowledge embedded in these languages. The key for the survival of smaller languages is to use themanywhere, anytime, in all possible contexts.

Everywhere in Europe and around the world, new solutions are being developed for language learning and for the use of different languages in practice to cater for the need of small language communities.

Often economy of scale negatively affects small language groups –
investment in new applications or solutions are too
costly for a small linguistic community.

We call upon the EU to establish and provide funding to a Language Diversity Centre in the field of regional and minority languages, focusing on the smallest and most vulnerable language communities in Europe. The Language Diversity Centre shall provide information, knowledge and expertise and pool resources that can help different language communities to learn from each other.

ALL CULTURES ARE VALUABLE!

The story of Harn and Armelle

Harn and Armelle are a Breton couple living in France.
Harn is a teacher, while Armelle is a bank clerk.

One of their hobbies is attending Fest-Noz (Night Festival), where they can dance traditional Breton dances accompanied by singing and often by instrumental music as well. The couple loves the 400 years old tradition of Fest-Noz, because it is an entertaining way of expressing their identities, and they enjoy socialising with other members of the Breton community. They help organize the Fest-Noz in their village, one of over a thousand similar annual events taking place in Brittany. Since 2012, Fest-Noz is on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity.

The Breton Fest-Noz shows us how a cultural tradition can revitalize a whole community and become a symbol of it, how it can also become a role model for other regions or Member States. Let us not forget: it took hard work from hundreds of people to make this happen. Some minority communities do not have the resources to organize such events on their own, and in some cases the Members States hinder their initiatives and there are no EU funds available to support them.

While the majority communities enjoy their language rights and culture by default, in public and with public funding, the same treatment is just a dream or a privilege for some minorities.

We believe cultures should be equal
and should be equally appreciated.

We call on the EU to protect and support its cultural diversity and guarantee equal access to European funds – because we all pay taxes.

EQUAL CHANCES IN LANGUAGE USE!

The story of Ádám and Anna

Ádám and Anna, brother and sister, are Hungarians
from Transylvania, a historical region of Romania.

Ádám had the opportunity to learn about the world in geography class in his mother tongue in primary school in the village where they live. But now that he will become a 5^th grader, his parents face a choice. He would either have to travel 20 kilometres every day, by himself, to the neighbouring city, where education is available in his mother tongue or stay at home and continue in a Romanian school.

His sister Anna will soon be of school age, and the decision in her case seems to be even more difficult: if the minimum number of pupils for a class is not met, there will be no Hungarian first grade class at all in the village. Small children will have to take a long journey every day to the next Hungarian school or she will go to the Romanian school without being able to learn to read or write properly in her own language.

You may have heard about similar stories in many EU states. The mother tongue is a key element of identity preservation and besides family the school plays an important role in shaping the identity of children as they grow up. If this opportunity is taken away, children belonging to minorities would surely step on the path of assimilation.

Although Europe’s cultural richness is based on linguistic and cultural diversity, and its people, the current linguistic and cultural policies tend to favour the official languages of the Member States. Action is needed. The EU and the Member States should create favourable conditions for linguistic and cultural diversity to thrive.

The Union should prevent marginalisation
of certain communities.

We call on the EU for a Recommendation in which the EU shall define best ways to protect and promote cultural and linguistic diversity, in particular for the protection and use of regional and minority languages in the areas of public administration, public services, education, culture, in the judiciary, media, health care, commerce and consumer protection.

Furthermore, any criteria that exclude regional and minority languages from the EU funding programmes should be abolished in the new programme generations for education, training, youth and culture.

AT HOME IN OUR REGION

The story of Frederik

Frederik is Danish. He lives with his family in
South Schleswig, Germany.

His children attend the Danish school in Flensburg, which is considered to be the best in the city. His community enjoys extended language rights, cultural autonomy; they can manage their own schools, clubs and social establishments. Their double loyalty to the German state and to the Danish people is never questioned.

From his elders he has heard many stories about how ethnic Germans were oppressed while Schleswig was part of the Danish crown, and how later ethnic Danes were suffering from discrimination under Prussian rule. After 1920 the province was divided between the Denmark and Germany. This is old history now.

In the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations of 1955, Germany and Denmark promised to uphold the rights of each other’s minority communities. Today there is trust and an excellent relationship between the two states and the two minority communities contribute substantially to the well-being of the region as a whole.

This is a story with a happy end.
Unfortunately, relations between countries and
minorities are not always so harmonious!

The German-Danish regional cooperation, which is based on the added value of the minority communities from both sides of the border, is a great example for the whole of Europe.

We call on the EU to amend the common provisions of the regional funds in such a way that the thematic objectives include the protection of national minorities and the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity.

FREE PASSAGE OF AUDIOVISUAL CONTENT

The story of Claus, Astrid, Alfons and Giorgio

Claus, Astrid, Alfons and Giorgio are young people
from Sand in Taufers/Campo Tures, South Tyrol, Italy.

They love football, just as most fellows from Europe do.As members of the German speaking community, they mostly watch German or Austrian TV channels. Except for football games. The broadcast of the German and Austrian programs stops when an international play starts. Claus, Astrid, Alfons and Giorgio heard about geoblocking and copyrights, but they don’t care about the details. They only want to watch football with commentaries in their mother tongue. Same as millions of sports fans all over the EU.

This is why we have to STOP GEOBLOCKING!

Every European citizen shall have the right to enjoy culture and entertainment in his own language. It`s time to say goodbye to digital borders, time for a European single market for copyright.

We call on the EU to establish a unitary European copyright that will lead to the abolishment of licensing barriers within the Union. We propose an amendment with the effect of ensuring that there will be freedom of service and freedom of reception of audio-visual content in those regions where the minorities live.

RIGHTS FOR STATELESS PEOPLE!

The main reason for the existence of stateless people in Europe is the
dissolution of states, such as the Soviet-Union and former Yugoslavia,
and the establishment of their successor states.

In the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, there are still many non-citizens of Russian descent. The Roma who are affected by statelessness, are mostly former citizens of Yugoslavia and their offspring. After the dissolution of the Soviet-Union and Yugoslavia, the successor states had discriminating regulations and difficult bureaucratic conditions for registering, which were often an obstacle to become citizens of the newly formed states. Also for the Roma who fled the war in the nineties and their offspring, it has been extremely difficult to become citizens in their new countries of living.

There are hundreds of thousands of stateless persons in Europe, many belonging to national minorities. They are the most endangered minorities of the EU. As the Member States do not consider them citizens, they don’t have access the most basic rights, including the right to residence or to have a legal job. The denial of citizenship in the country where they live, is, in fact, a form of cultural and economic oppression.

Only Member States can naturalize stateless individuals
and make them the citizens of their state.

The EU, however, can legislate in this area and give stateless persons the right to have a residence, to work, to provide services, to travel within the EU and many other rights that EU citizens have in countries other than their own.

We call upon the EU to adopt an amendment to the directives that allow for the approximation of the rights of long-term stateless persons and their families to those of EU-citizens.