ELEN Press Releases
ELEN calls on EU to take action to protect European minoritised languages at the UN Forum for Minority Issues
ELEN has issued a formal statement at the UN Forum for Minority Issues in Geneva calling on the EU to take action to protect European minoritized and endangered languages, something that the EU is required to do under Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty. The statement,...
ELEN General Assembly 2025: language activists to campaign for EU measures to protect European minoritized languages.
Around 100 delegates representing 182 language activist organisations gathered in Barcelona over the weekend for the 2025 ELEN General Assembly hosted by CIEMEN and supported by the Catalan Government and Barcelona Council. The meeting covered a wide range of issues...
Activistes lingüístics de tota Europa es reuniran a Barcelona per a l’Assemblea General 2025 de l’ELEN
NOTA DE PREMSA Un ampli suport públic a les llengües minoritzades d’Europa fa imprescindible que la UE actuï, afirmen els dirigents de l’ELEN. Prop de 90 delegats que representen 180 organitzacions d’activistes lingüístics de tota Europa es reuniran a Barcelona del 14...
Events
ELEN has issued a formal statement at the UN Forum for Minority Issues in Geneva calling on the EU to take action to protect European minoritized and endangered languages, something that the EU is required to do under Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Article: https://elen.ngo/2025/11/28/elen-calls-on-eu-to-take-action-to-protect-european-minoritised-languages-at-the-un-forum-for-minority-issues/
Eurolang European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Council of Europe Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination European Union at the UN – Geneva Michael McGrath EU Commissioner Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights European Commission
Article: https://elen.ngo/2025/11/28/elen-calls-on-eu-to-take-action-to-protect-european-minoritised-languages-at-the-un-forum-for-minority-issues/
Eurolang European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Council of Europe Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination European Union at the UN – Geneva Michael McGrath EU Commissioner Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights European Commission
🇺🇳 📢ELEN statement at the UN Forum for Minority Issues calls on the #EU to act to protect endangered and minoritised languages as it is required to do under Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty. #ELEN2025 #UNFMI 🇺🇳
Full statement:
ELEN ORAL STATEMENT TO THE 2025 UN FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES
"Thank you Mr. Chair, Your Excellencies,
The European Language Equality Network (ELEN) is today the leading international organization working for the protection of European minoritized and endangered languages.
Every day we work with our members to help them in their efforts at effective language recovery and revitalisation. And every day we deal with attacks and discrimination against these languages, most of which are endangered.
It could all be so different. We know that ensuring language rights and protections for minoritized languages reaps its own rewards. We‘ve seen how protecting languages helps with peace building in Ireland, for example, with the language measures that came as part of the Good Friday Agreement. We’ve also seen how ensuring language immersion education ensures social cohesion, for instance, in Catalonia. In addition, investing in a language community brings numerous economic benefits.
Yet still the problems, the discrimination, the threat of endangerment for our European languages, continues.
In Europe, the EU proclaims in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union that, “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”
But where is this respect for minorities in particular language minorities? Where are these rights? There are none.
The rights of minorities have a foundational value on which the EU and its Member-States’ polities have to be built. How can they be absent?
We therefore expect the EU and its Member-States to live up to this constitutional commitment and to consider language minority rights as foundational to European societies.
We call on the EU to launch negotiations with ELEN to implement our strategy to achieve long overdue protection measures for our languages, and clear, unambiguous rights for European minoritized and endangered language speakers."
@followers Eurolang European Union at the UN – New York European Union at the UN – Geneva Michael McGrath EU Commissioner European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Council of Europe Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
Full statement:
ELEN ORAL STATEMENT TO THE 2025 UN FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES
"Thank you Mr. Chair, Your Excellencies,
The European Language Equality Network (ELEN) is today the leading international organization working for the protection of European minoritized and endangered languages.
Every day we work with our members to help them in their efforts at effective language recovery and revitalisation. And every day we deal with attacks and discrimination against these languages, most of which are endangered.
It could all be so different. We know that ensuring language rights and protections for minoritized languages reaps its own rewards. We‘ve seen how protecting languages helps with peace building in Ireland, for example, with the language measures that came as part of the Good Friday Agreement. We’ve also seen how ensuring language immersion education ensures social cohesion, for instance, in Catalonia. In addition, investing in a language community brings numerous economic benefits.
Yet still the problems, the discrimination, the threat of endangerment for our European languages, continues.
In Europe, the EU proclaims in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union that, “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”
But where is this respect for minorities in particular language minorities? Where are these rights? There are none.
The rights of minorities have a foundational value on which the EU and its Member-States’ polities have to be built. How can they be absent?
We therefore expect the EU and its Member-States to live up to this constitutional commitment and to consider language minority rights as foundational to European societies.
We call on the EU to launch negotiations with ELEN to implement our strategy to achieve long overdue protection measures for our languages, and clear, unambiguous rights for European minoritized and endangered language speakers."
@followers Eurolang European Union at the UN – New York European Union at the UN – Geneva Michael McGrath EU Commissioner European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Council of Europe Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
