Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-24-Speech-2-496"
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"en.20091124.39.2-496"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members, the general objective of the European Union’s policy on multilingualism is to highlight the importance of all the languages spoken in the European Union. In accordance with Article 151 of the treaty, the Community’s actions must help encourage cooperation between Member States in order to contribute to the flourishing of Member States’ cultures, while respecting at the same time their diversity at national and regional level and focusing on our common cultural heritage.
Based on these principles, the European Commission, in close cooperation with Member States, is implementing the strategy of promoting multilingualism and linguistic diversity, featuring in the document adopted in September 2008, which is aimed at all the languages spoken in the Community. All these languages represent an integral part of our common cultural heritage, and every single national, regional, minority and migrants’ language spoken in Europe offers an additional facet to this common cultural heritage.
As you are well aware, the European Commission has invited Member States to consider teaching regional and minority languages as part of their national strategies for promoting multilingualism in society. The decisions made by the European Union in this area are not replacing the measures already adopted by Member States, but are intended to support and supplement them. The main funding instruments available to the European Union are the Lifelong Learning Programme for the 2007-2013 period, which is open to all the languages spoken in the Community, including regional and minority languages.
There is no Community legislation for regulating the use of languages in Member States and none of the treaties includes options for adopting such provisions either. Respect for linguistic and cultural diversity is enshrined via Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which stipulates that the Union must respect cultural and linguistic diversity.
As you know, the provisions of the Charter are aimed at the EU’s institutions and bodies, as well as Member States, only when they implement Community legislation. Consequently, Member States continue to be the decision makers on their domestic linguistic policy, including with regard to regional and minority languages. The protection of persons belonging to national minorities is an integral part of respecting human rights, which is one of the principles on which the European Union has been created, as indicated in Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union.
As a result, Member States should use every legal instrument they have available to safeguard the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, in accordance with their own constitutional order and with the obligations and commitments incumbent upon them under international law. By international law I mean, for example, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe, which provides a global framework in this area, as well as the recommendations from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which the European Union has resorted to on different occasions."@en1
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