WRITTEN QUESTION E-2341/01 by Pat Gallagher (UEN) to the Commission. Minority and regional languages — establishment of multiannual programme.
Date: 2001-08-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, cultural pluralism, information society, language teaching, minority language, new technology, regional language

18.4.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 93 E/115

(2002/C 93 E/135)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2341/01

by Pat Gallagher (UEN) to the Commission

(1 August 2001)

Subject: Minority and regional languages (cid:26) establishment of multiannual programme

Does the Commission share the view that more than forty regional and minority languages spoken in
Europe form a unique part of the continent’s cultural heritage? Is it prepared to establish a multiannual
programme that will have as its objective the promotion and safeguarding of the minority and regional
languages of the European Union?

(2002/C 93 E/136)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2342/01

by Pat Gallagher (UEN) to the Commission

(1 August 2001)

Subject: Minority and regional languages (cid:26) access to new technologies

Does the Commission believe that access to new information and communication technologies is an
essential factor in the promotion of minority and regional language? What measures does it propose to
provide for such access and promotion?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2340/01, E-2341/01 and E-2342/01
given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(17 October 2001)

The Commission does share the view that regional and minority languages form a unique part of Europe’s
cultural heritage. Paragraph 4 of Article 151 (ex Article 128) of the EC Treaty states that the Community
shall take cultural aspects into account in its action under other provisions of the EC Treaty, in particular
in order to respect and to promote the diversity of its cultures, and this provision also applies to languages
as a medium of cultural expression and transmission. Initiatives involving regional or minority languages
are elegible for funding under a wide range of Community programmes and actions, including those cited
by the Honourable Member, insofar as they contribute to the objectives of the action in question. The only
exceptions are certain actions of the Socrates programme, in particular the Lingua action, targetted at the
less widely used official languages of the Union, plus Irish and Luxembourgish.

Under the Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (R & D), the Specific
Programme on a ‘User-friendly information society’, has among its aims, under the Key Action on
‘Multimedia content and tools’,
the
language aspects. Furthermore, under the Specific programme ‘Improving Human
consideration of
Potential’, the Key Action on the ‘Improving the socio-economic knowledge base’
invites research on
linguistic parameters in the course of the shaping of civic values.

to enable linguistic and cultural diversity,

thus allowing for

Access to modern communication media is important to the continued vitality of less widely used
languages and initiatives involving lesser-used languages are elegible for support under programmes
managed by the Information Society Directorate General, such as the e-Content programme, which forms
part of the e-Europe initiative and aims to stimulate the development and use of European digital content
on the global networks and to promote linguistic diversity in the information society.

The Commission has no immediate plans to propose a programme specifically aimed at promoting
regional and minority languages. However,
it
intends to draw conclusions from the many events and initiatives taking place during the year and from
the wide-ranging public debate on languages and language issues that this initiative has stimulated in order
to develop a longer-term strategy for linguistic diversity and language learning in the Union.

in the wake of the European Year of Languages 2001,