R6: United in Diversity: Safeguarding Europe's Linguistic Heritage

One of the defining features of Europe is its cultural diversity. Europe has
historically consisted of multiple and different cultures, languages, and
beliefs. In fact, more than 200 different languages are spoken in Europe. This
is undoubtedly a factor in making our continent such a culturally and socially
rich place. The identity of each and every person, as well as that of every
society, is shaped by various factors—one of which is language. Our mother
tongue is not just what we use to communicate; it also shapes the way we think
and perceive the world. It builds the cultural heritage of every human
community. Nonetheless, some of these languages are barely spoken.

Nowadays, this diversity is hard to preserve for several reasons. Among them, we
highlight the perception of minority languages as a threat to a state’s cohesion
and as a barrier to efficient communication. Regional languages tend to be
undervalued, ignored, unprotected, and even occasionally deliberately attacked,
as countries often try to deny any sign of regional identities. As a result,
they are barely taught, barely spoken, and rarely used outside the private
sphere, which could easily lead to their extinction.

It could be argued that many ancient minority languages—such as Catalan, Breton,
and Welsh—face the threat of extinction due to their linguistic subordination in
relation to more prestigious state-endorsed languages, such as Spanish, French,
and English, respectively. In fact, the cultural homogenization caused by
globalization has also had a detrimental influence on minority languages, as
English has emerged as a dominant language worldwide. The minority languages,
due to the fact that they are not granted official status in most states—or only
have limited official recognition—, are at risk. There are sectors of European
society that, instead of valuing this linguistic wealth, regard these languages
as useless, even claiming that they could be replaced without issue by those
with greater international presence. In our capitalist societies, the use of
languages is indeed seen primarily from an economic and utilitarian angle. The
apparent “uselessness” of regional languages for the market and the capital
reinforces the trend towards their disappearance.

Being able to use one’s mother tongue in all aspects of life is a basic human
right. Nevertheless, the individual perspective is not the only one that
matters; multilingualism enriches societies and brings social and economic
benefits. However, the situation of minoritized languages in Europe can be
defined as critical.

One example of minoritized languages is Catalan. Despite being spoken by 10
million people in Spain, France, Italy, and Andorra, as of today it is not
considered an official language of the EU, even though its number of speakers is
comparable to that of other EU official languages. Whilst in Catalonia,
according to the regional government’s survey concerning linguistic usages
(2023), 80.4% of the population can speak Catalan, only 32.6% use this language
habitually.

Meanwhile, the Irish language is officially recognised at an EU level and in
both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. However it is not widely
spoken due to a history of colonialism, and English is the working language
across the island, with less than 2% of the Republic of Ireland population using
the language daily, and less than 1% of Northern Ireland’s population using it
at home. In Northern Ireland, the language remains controversial among British
Unionists, meaning usage of Irish is effectively limited to majority Catholic
areas. In the Republic, despite a century-old official dual-language policy,
efforts to revive the language have had limited success, and Irish is the
primary community language only in limited ‘Gaeltacht’ areas.

These statistics show the importance of endorsing linguistic policies that
promote the use of minoritized languages, preventing the situation from
worsening and reversing the trend. The different examples also display how
diverse the situations can be for minority languages: they can be recognized
official -by the countries where they are spoken and by the EU- but still
endangered (e.g. Irish), only be recognized in the country where it is spoken
(e.g. Catalan), or not even be an official language in their region (e.g.
Breton).

In addition to this, as established in the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages adopted in 1992 and signed by 33 countries, European
institutions have the duty to promote all European languages. However, several
member states of the EU did not ratify, or even signed this Charter. Belgium,
Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, and Latvia did not sign it; while
France, Italy, Malta and Portugal signed it, but didn’t ratify it. This is
alarming for the state of protection of regional and minority languages in the
EU, and constitutes an incoherence with the report on the final outcome of the
Conference on the Future of Europe (May 2022), which stated in Proposal 48:
"Minority and regional languages require additional protection, taking note of
the Council of Europe Convention on Minority Languages and the Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities."

We are committed to a diverse Europe, where each of our languages is kept alive
and receives the recognition it deserves. In order to provide the protection
they need, we propose:

- That Minoritized languages such as Catalan, Romani and other languages be
recognized as official EU languages.

- That the right of all people in the EU to study in their local minoritized
language in public education systems be fully recognized.

- That language immersion in communities with minoritized languages becomes the
model of education promoted by the EU.

- That inclusive language policies be adopted to ensure migrants' right to learn
minoritized languages, including a mandate for public administrations to provide
free courses that ensure the achievement of a sufficient level of these
languages.

- That funding for the production of audiovisual content in European minoritized
languages be significantly increased.

- That public resources be allocated to promote live arts (e.g., plays,
concerts, etc.) in minoritized languages, such as Catalan, Irish, Tyrolean,
Welsh, or Breton.

- That every member state of the Council of Europe that haven't done so yet
fully ratifies the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

- That the European Commission strongly encourages its member states who haven’t
done so yet, to fully ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages.