Brussels, 12/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 11 September, the European Parliament adopted the own initiative report by François Alfonsi (Greens/EFA, France) on regional languages threatened with extinction (645 votes to 26, with 29 abstentions). It calls on the member states to encourage the safeguard of endangered languages and to promote their use - with a first step towards recognition being the ratification of the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. “The Lisbon Treaty broadened the scope of EU competences to contribute to the flowering of national and regional cultures. This own initiative report recreates momentum to promote and support the protection of these languages”, the rapporteur, Alfonsi, stated.
According to UNESCO, out of the 225 languages currently spoken in Europe, 128 are threatened with disappearance and, among these, 90 are “seriously endangered or in a critical situation”. Emphasis should be put on study programmes for these languages, and education and training for young people because they are an integral part of the richness of the EU's cultural heritage, MEPs state. Current IT tools, new media and social media should be fully exploited to ensure linguistic diversity and the transmission of endangered languages from one generation to the next. The use of audio recordings, online books and the digitisation of documents and research must be supported because they are precious tools for preserving languages and passing them on to the next generation. Lastly, MEPs state that the low number of speakers of endangered languages should not prevent those speakers having access to European funding - without which projects have to be abandoned. (IL/transl.fl)