WRITTEN QUESTION P-3731/00

by Florence Kuntz (UEN) to the Commission

(28 November 2000)

Subject: European Charter of Minority Languages and the teaching of Armenian

Since the 1915 genocide, the situation of the Armenian people has been without parallel: over half of the world's Armenians are scattered across the entire planet. Thus in the EU Member States, we find Armenian communities making sure that their culture survives by making educational and linguistic provision for their children.

Learning Armenian and the language of the host country within the framework of official school education allows these children to acquire complete mastery of their twofold cultural inheritance and to grow and develop, both culturally and spiritually, within their own tradition and in their daily lives.

In France, western Armenian, taught in certain schools, has been classified as a language to be taken into consideration within the framework of the European Charter of Minority Languages.

Can the Commission provide information as to the full range of community actions, programmes and/or budgetary items under which it might be possible to find funding for the teaching of Armenian in schools?

In certain well-known French schools, Armenian is taught in premises which should be enlarged, due to growing demand. Can the Commission tell me whether the requisite school extensions could be paid for by the EU, and if so, how and within what framework? Could subsidies for such work come under the same heading as the teaching of minority languages, and if not, what programmes or budgetary items might be appropriate as possible sources of funding for school extensions?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(5 January 2001)

Article 149 of the EC Treaty (ex Article 126) stipulates that the Member States are responsible for the content of teaching and the organisation of their education systems; the Community contributes to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States and supplementing their action.

The Comenius action within the Socrates programme is the main Community instrument for school education. Its objective is to enhance the quality and reinforce the European dimension of school education, in particular by encouraging transnational cooperation between schools and helping to improve initial and further training for staff directly involved in school education, as well as to promote language learning and understanding of different cultures. It offers the possibility of funding for projects involving native-language teaching for pupils of non-European origin and projects involving intercultural education.

Two other Community actions also apply to language learning in schools. However, the Lingua action within the Socrates programme is restricted to the official languages of the European Union together with Irish and Luxembourgish, while the preparatory action for regional and minority languages and cultures gives priority to the non-official native languages of the Union.

Investment in the restructuring of school buildings is not regarded as eligible expenditure under these actions. However, it is possible that such projects could be eligible for support from the Structural Funds, provided the schools in question are in the areas to which the Funds' objectives apply and the aims of the project correspond to the Community priorities in the relevant field.