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Language Problems and Language Planning: Online-First ArticlesMinority language rights at a deadlock
Assessing the EU’s approach to regional or minority languages
This article analyses the European Union’s (EU) approach to the protection of regional or minority languages (RMLs) over the decade 2013 to 2023. It starts by providing a succinct overview of minority language rights in the international arena and focuses its analysis on the European Union, more specifically on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The article notes the downward trend in minority language promotion in Europe and highlights the mismatch between the bottom-up, societal demands claiming more support for RMLs and the top-down approach, which shows increasing reluctance to intervene in minority language protection at EU level, on the grounds that languages remain a competence of Member States.
Keywords: Minority Language Rights, Regional or Minority Languages, EU, European Parliament, European Commission, European Union, Council of the EU, Council of Europe
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The European Commission and its support to RMLs: Language skills for economic competitiveness as opposed to language (minority) rights?
- 2.1Any place for RMLs in the Europe 2020 Strategy?
- 2.2Civil society demands on RMLs: The minority safepack initiative
- 3.The European Parliament and its support to RMLs : Keeping minority language rights on the EU agenda
- 4.The utilitarian dimension of the Council of the European Union’s actions on RMLs
- 5.Concluding remarks
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Bibliography
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