However, in the countries of the EU a total of some 120 languages are actually spoken and Corsican MEP François Alfonsi believes that the Union should legislate to protect these languages just as it does to protect endangered fauna and flora, according to a post today on Euractiv, the independent specialised European Union affairs portal for EU policy professionals.
Alfonsi argues that languages would not disappear were there not a deliberate policy to marginalise them and he has prepared a draft report (PDF) on endangered languages that will be voted in June by the full Parliament in a plenary session. Alfonsi’s draft report is also due to be presented to the European Parliament’s Culture Committee tomorrow (23rd April).
“Languages would not experience such a recession if they were not marginalised in the education and media system and society in general,” says Alfonsi – the European Parliament’s only Corsican-speaking MEP.
In Alfonsi’s home country of France, the Corsican, Franco-Provençal, Breton and Occitan languages are regarded as being threatened with extinction, whilst in Europe about 120 languages are considered to be threatened with extinction, according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, which estimates that somewhere in the world one language dies out every two weeks.
Europe’s countries have a patchy record on preserving minority languages. Finland, for instance is very good, whilst others are very poor. Alfonsi says: “If we compare the resources allocated by the Finnish state to promote Saami and the resources allocated by the French state to promote Corsican, it is like a bicycle and a Ferrari!”
At European level, many countries have signed the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. However, the obligation to ratify the charter only applies to new Council of Europe member countries, not to existing members like France and Greece, which have both refused to sign it. Furthermore, funding for minority languages within the EU itself has also been cut in recent years.