Language Diversity: a Challenge for Europe

On the conference Language Diversity: a Challenge for Europe which was held in the European Parliament in Brussels on 4 March, Alex Riemersma has proposed some recommendations for a new EP resolution. Main items for that resolution in his view are the access of the EU itself as a treaty party to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe. The linking of the EU language policy to the Charter of the Council of Europe can be further developed into the setting of common minimum standards for the lesser used languages in Europe with regard to education, public services and media. A European Master on Multilingualism could be developed as a catalyst for RML education on the third level as well as incentive for further research in the field of multilingualism.

Alex Riemersma gave a brief outline on the influences of the European language policies on the development of Frisian. He mentioned the growth of Frisian medium pre-school provisions as well as trilingual schooling as well as the contribution of the European Year of Languages 2001 to the translation of Frisian poem Bitter-Sweet into 82 languages and to the cultural successes of the song contest Liet International. The conference was organised by the European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament of which the Corsican MEP François Alfonsi was the first responsible member to the conference.