European parliament working paper
European concern about linguistic diversity
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3. 1. European concern about linguistic diversity3.1.1. Pan-European institutions. The Treaty establishing the European Communities does not specify any powers in the field of languages. However, an overarching European approach to the issue of linguistic diversity is sorely needed, given the clearly transversal nature of language as an instrument of communication and information closely associated with specific policies in the fields of administration, consumer affairs, mass media, education and culture (see section 3.2.2). Several institutions have taken an interest in the subject and have undertaken prospective operations leading to several specific actions and Decisions related to various legal bases. These issues have been described in the Introduction and in Chapter 1. We have seen how at the initiative of the European Parliament, which has adopted a number of resolutions on the subject, calling among other things for a multiannual programme, a budget line offered support to initiatives to promote minority and regional languages from 1982 to 2001. It is important to underline that concern about the preservation of, and respect for, linguistic diversity extends beyond the EU to other pan-European institutions, and the reasons for this interest are highly relevant. The Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, to which EU Member States all belong, have made statements and resolutions to promote linguistic pluralism, as a means of reinforcing citizens’ individual rights and the rights of persons belonging to language communities, as well as of bolstering peace and security in Europe94. 3.1.2. Beyond the institutional use of language. Concern about linguistic diversity is reflected in a variety of documents relating to European multilingualism, and the political will of the Union in this area seems clear. Indeed, linguistic diversity has even been referred to as a “principle”: thus, a recent Draft Council Resolution95 invites the Commission… “To take into account [...] the principle of linguistic diversity in its relations with third and candidate countries”. The origin and evolution of the Union explains the ways the subject has been coped with. At first the task was to establish the valid languages of the treaties96 and the languages of Community institutions and bodies, the objective being to ensure the efficiency and legal certainty of Community norms and acts. Later, Community policies led EU institutions to act in matters in which language is an important element. The need for institutions to be more democratic and closer to the citizens, and the increasing social prestige of lesser-used languages, are further reasons for the Union to play a more active role in this issue. 3.2. Language pluralism and culture3.2.1. Language pluralism and Europe’s cultural heritage. Linguistic pluralism, as an age-old heritage of Europe, is first and foremost a fact of life. It can give rise to problems in drawing up common policies: chiefly problems of communication, loss of information or a lack of legal certainty. But concentrating on a small number of languages also causes sizeable problems, such as the distance perceived by citizens from decision-making processes affecting them and their unsatisfactory involvement in them, and the de facto exclusion of Member States that question the very legitimacy of the Community-building objective. There is also great concern that an age-old cultural heritage should not be squandered. Language diversity should be accepted as a European asset, without forgetting the problems inherent to it.Moreover, the Union’s primary law gives sufficient legal bases to enable Community institutions to exercise their powers in the field of respecting and promoting linguistic diversity. Several treaty precepts have led to Community policies associated with linguistic diversity, for language appears in various regulations and specific policies. In a word: linguistic pluralism is not only real but also subject to legal regulation. Linguistic diversity does not define per se which languages are to be protected. It has sometimes been interpreted so as to refer just to languages that are official in the Member States; however, we hold that linguistic diversity applies to all indigenous European languages97. Beneath the mantle of the value of linguistic diversity, all languages spoken by Europeans for centuries, be they official or not, deserve to be protected. Some initiatives have indeed included more languages than the EU official languages, as occurs in the proclamation of 2001 as the European Year of Languages98. As we saw in Chapter 1.2, the Decision covers the official EU languages, plus Irish and Lëtzebuergesch and other languages identified by each Member State. The MLIS programme was another example (see below, 3.2.2.). Linguistic diversity does not prevent particular institutions from limiting their working languages, for it supplements the principle of declaring official languages. The principles of official languages and of respect for linguistic diversity can be differentiated. The former states which languages are validly and effectively used by Community institutions in their internal dealings, between them, with Member States or even with European citizens99. In its turn, respect for linguistic diversity calls, at the very least, for promotion policies for all autochthonous European languages, whether or not they have achieved official status at the EU level or within their States. Linguistic pluralism has often been regarded as a feature of Europe’s cultural heritage. Linguistic diversity has indeed a lot to do with our cultural heritage. But the promotion of linguistic diversity need not be viewed solely as the promotion of a cultural asset. Cultural policy is in fact quite strictly defined in the Treaties. EU actions in the area of education, for instance, are not strictly cultural, for they are classified in a separate area: that of education. At the same time, many EU policies have secondary linguistic aims. So in this case we have to see whether a particular language policy falls, for instance, in the area of the teaching of students, in which case the policy will fit into EU actions in the field of education, and not culture. 3.2.2. The transversal nature of language and the legal bases of language policies. In the words of the Committee of the Regions, ‘language permeates all aspects of people’s lives’100. Language is an essential part of many policies, so the potential language-linked actions which can or do relate to each specific Community area of competence need to be analysed in order to see whether or not they are being applied to languages, and if so, if this is being done with a restrictive criterion. As we have seen, for example, language teaching is a matter for education policy. Another example is the promotion of literary translations, which is a matter for cultural policy; but the transversal nature of language means that many Community actions are in areas that cannot be qualified as being of a strictly cultural nature. Language plays an important role in education, the information society, and the movement of workers and cultural industries.Let us therefore take a closer look at some of the Community actions based on different articles of the Treaty. Language and industry European institutions have defined their position on this issue several times through documents of varying status within the legal hierarchy. Specific legal grounds have been used to clarify the legal bases of those European policies which have a clear impact upon linguistic diversity, though it may be incidental to the main aim of the programme101. The ‘Multi-annual programme to promote linguistic diversity within the information society’ (MLIS) is a good case in point. A 1999 ECJ Judgement102 stated that the legal basis for a MLIS was a question for industry (Article 157 EC), and not, as held by the European Parliament, for culture as well (Article 151 EC): ‘the object of the programme, namely the promotion of linguistic diversity, is seen as an element of an essentially economic nature and incidentally as a vehicle for or element of culture as such’ (par. 62). As we have already seen (Article 151.4103), the Community shall take cultural aspects into account in its action under other provisions of this Treaty, in particular in order to respect and to promote the diversity of its cultures, so there is no need to use Article 151 as a legal basis whenever a programme has a cultural impact, as long as the cultural component is incidental (as it is in the case in point) to the main objective of the programme. Language and cultureArticle 151 EC fixes the grounds for Community action in the field of culture. It starts by stating that ‘the Community shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore’. It continues: ‘Action by the Community action shall be aimed at encouraging co-operation between Member States’ for the ‘improvement of the knowledge and dissemination of the culture and history of the European peoples’; ‘the conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage of European significance’; in ‘non-commercial cultural exchanges’; and in ‘artistic and literary creation, including in the audio-visual sector’. The word ‘language’ does not appear in these first two paragraphs, or in the following three. This omission is worth underlining, not to claim that linguistic diversity is not cultural diversity (for it is), but to stress that culture embraces fields, such as literature, in which language is involved. We have already seen that language is also indispensable in other European policies in which it is not explicitly mentioned. Furthermore, the provision specifically includes ‘non-commercial cultural exchanges’. Insofar as it is a cultural matter, language may be a basic feature in exchanges, both commercial and non-commercial, but the Community’s cultural policy is limited to the latter. As regards commercial cultural exchanges, though they are cultural, another legal basis would have to be sought for a Community policy in this field. This legal basis is used to support the translation of literary works, and as we have seen this action is open to the translation to and from regional and minority languages. Language and educationArticle 149.1 EC, on education policy, provides that ‘the Community shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging Cupertino between Member States and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their action, […] while fully respecting […] their cultural and linguistic diversity’104. The limits to ‘supporting and supplementing’ depend on what are taken to be the powers of the Member States. First of all, cultural diversity and linguistic diversity are differentiated in the text. Secondly, both diversity promotion policies are set apart from strictly cultural policy, and in this case form part of educational policy. Community action is thus directed, among other objectives, towards ‘developing the European dimension in education, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the Member States’. The expression ‘the languages of the Member States’ should not be taken to refer merely to the official languages of the Member States, but rather to all the languages used in education in those States, because it is within the context of education and training that the word ‘language’ is used. For instance, the legal bases of the Decision on the European Year of Languages 2001105 are Articles 149, 150 and 151 EC and it does not apply solely to the official languages of the Community. The Decision makes the statement that all languages ‘must be recognised to have equal cultural value and dignity’. In its Opinion on the same draft programme106, the Committee of the Regions backed the promotion of language competence as a contribution to culture and employment, being an essential requirement for the mobility of citizens within the Union. A new link-up of powers in language, employment policy and movement of workers ensues; and we shall return to this issue in section 3.3.3. Moreover, though it later changed its position, the Commission stated that Article 149 EC, rather than Article 151, was the Union’s legal basis for the promotion of regional and minority languages, in its reply to written question 2139/98107. The European Parliament Resolution of 13 May 1998 also underlined the need ‘to encourage the acquisition of a good level of knowledge of the Community languages (especially those in widest use and the languages of neighbouring Member States), whilst recognising the need to preserve the rich diversity of languages in Europe’108. Language and social and regional policies. Article 146 EC109 establishes a European Social Fund, which aims to render the employment of workers easier and to increase their geographical and occupational mobility within the Community, in particular through vocational training and retraining. It would seem evident that, to the extent that mobile workers require language competence, the training and retraining should include language courses, and we see no reason to exclude regional and minority languages from such training, wherever there is demand for them. The same can be said in the context of the Community’s policy for economic and social cohesion (Article 158110). Its efforts to reduce disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions or islands, including rural areas, are in fact directed towards many of the communities that speak a regional or minority language. The European Regional Development Fund is highly flexible in content, and it would seem reasonable to suggest that language issues, which have in the past been included (see Ch. 2), could be highlighted in the future, given that the future of many a language is inextricably linked to the economic development of the community that speaks it. The legal basis on which to establish Community policy is not a trifling matter, for it determines the procedure for Community action: which Community institutions take part in the policy-making process and the majorities by which the opinions, reports or resolutions have to be adopted. Thus if it falls under industry, for example, the procedure involves consultation with the Parliament (art. 252 EC), whereas if it falls under culture or education, the procedure involves co-decision (art. 251 EC). For culture unanimity is required in the Council, while for education, a qualified majority suffices. 3.2.3. In conclusion. Once linguistic diversity has been acknowledged, the respect for, and promotion of, all European languages is called for, whether or not they have official status inside the EU institutions or in the Member States. Policies aimed at protecting linguistic plurality can find their legal basis in a variety of subject areas in different titles. Since the Community’s language policies generally coexist with other Community policies, the specific field of each policy needs to be found, as no provision explicitly confers powers on linguistic matters in the Treaties, other than an indirect reference in Article 151 EC, which refers to culture. Only in the absence of any other explicit Community goals need one draw, in order to put forward a specific programme for regional or minority languages, upon the legal basis for the Community’s cultural policy, which is a general policy area restricted to what is considered strictly cultural, not touching upon education or commercial fields, to mention but two examples given in the text.Directory: RegData -> etudes -> document travail document travail -> Working paper a single market in financial services RegData -> European commission brussels, XXX RegData -> The european commission RegData -> Provisional agreement resulting from interinstitutional negotiations Download 1.21 Mb. Share with your friends:
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