ELEN Press Releases
UN Special Rapporteur for Minorities slams EU for its lack of protection of European minoritized languages.
Speaking in Brussels today, the UN Special Rapporteur for Minority Issues, Nicolas Levrat, strongly criticised the EU over its double standards regarding minority protection in general and the continuing lack of protection for European minoritized and endangered...
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...
Events
🌍🗣️ Respecting Linguistic Diversity? The EU Speaks Over 80 Languages – But Many Are at Risk! 🇪🇺
The European Union is home to 84 languages, yet only 24 are official in the EU. The rest—around 60 indigenous, minoritised and endangered languages within the EU—are spoken by smaller communities and often lack legal protection, from Romani and Yiddish to Breton, Frisian, and Sardinian.
Despite this linguistic richness, many languages are vulnerable, relying on government support to survive, while several have governments that act to undermine them. While the EU is meant to protect its language minorities under Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty, it is yet to take any substantive measures to do that.
#LinguisticDiversity #LanguageRights #MinorityLanguages #EndangeredLanguages #EU #CulturalRights
The European Union is home to 84 languages, yet only 24 are official in the EU. The rest—around 60 indigenous, minoritised and endangered languages within the EU—are spoken by smaller communities and often lack legal protection, from Romani and Yiddish to Breton, Frisian, and Sardinian.
Despite this linguistic richness, many languages are vulnerable, relying on government support to survive, while several have governments that act to undermine them. While the EU is meant to protect its language minorities under Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty, it is yet to take any substantive measures to do that.
#LinguisticDiversity #LanguageRights #MinorityLanguages #EndangeredLanguages #EU #CulturalRights
Today your children celebrated Sámi Day.
They learned their language, their flag, their history.
They learned — more importantly — that their state once tried to erase them.
And the state today teaches it.
It admits it.
It apologizes through education.
And here is the big mirror.
Because if the Sámi lived in Greece, there would be no "Sámi Day".
There would be silence.
As it is for the Armans / Vlachs.
An indigenous people of the Balkans, with a Latin language, with a presence centuries before the formation of the Balkan states.
A people who:
— had their language labelled an "idiom with no value".
— were ridiculed as backward peasants.
- were taught to be ashamed of their language.
— learned to keep quiet to advance socially.
— lost whole generations through a monolingual education system.
Kids who weren't punished with sticks
but were punished with ridicule.
And this is just as effective.
There were no residential schools.
However, there was something more sneaky:
The complete absence of our language and culture.
No teaching.
No recognition.
No apologies at all.
In Greek schools there is no "Day of the Armans".
No pictures with their flag.
There are no songs in their language.
There is no phrase:
"What we did was wrong."
On the contrary, the only phrase that does exist is:
"They don't exist."
And yet they do exist.
They are living here on an everyday basis.
Working, creating, raising children.
Some even speak their language.
Others have lost it — not naturally, but historically.
Not because they "evolved."
But because they were forced to forget.
Sámi's today are being taught as an example to avoid.
Armans / Vlachs are still taught — when taught — as a folklore, as a footnote of history.
But the difference is not historic.
It's politics.
Norway found the courage to look back at its past.
Greece is still afraid of it.
Sámi's don't ask for privileges.
They're asking not to disappear.
The Armans / Vlachs are asking for the same.
And perhaps the most painful question is this:
How many of our children in Greece will ever learn their history —
not as folklore, but as a part of our story that was forced to be silent?
Sotiris Bletsas Vlach/ Arman language activist. Greece EBLUL
They learned their language, their flag, their history.
They learned — more importantly — that their state once tried to erase them.
And the state today teaches it.
It admits it.
It apologizes through education.
And here is the big mirror.
Because if the Sámi lived in Greece, there would be no "Sámi Day".
There would be silence.
As it is for the Armans / Vlachs.
An indigenous people of the Balkans, with a Latin language, with a presence centuries before the formation of the Balkan states.
A people who:
— had their language labelled an "idiom with no value".
— were ridiculed as backward peasants.
- were taught to be ashamed of their language.
— learned to keep quiet to advance socially.
— lost whole generations through a monolingual education system.
Kids who weren't punished with sticks
but were punished with ridicule.
And this is just as effective.
There were no residential schools.
However, there was something more sneaky:
The complete absence of our language and culture.
No teaching.
No recognition.
No apologies at all.
In Greek schools there is no "Day of the Armans".
No pictures with their flag.
There are no songs in their language.
There is no phrase:
"What we did was wrong."
On the contrary, the only phrase that does exist is:
"They don't exist."
And yet they do exist.
They are living here on an everyday basis.
Working, creating, raising children.
Some even speak their language.
Others have lost it — not naturally, but historically.
Not because they "evolved."
But because they were forced to forget.
Sámi's today are being taught as an example to avoid.
Armans / Vlachs are still taught — when taught — as a folklore, as a footnote of history.
But the difference is not historic.
It's politics.
Norway found the courage to look back at its past.
Greece is still afraid of it.
Sámi's don't ask for privileges.
They're asking not to disappear.
The Armans / Vlachs are asking for the same.
And perhaps the most painful question is this:
How many of our children in Greece will ever learn their history —
not as folklore, but as a part of our story that was forced to be silent?
Sotiris Bletsas Vlach/ Arman language activist. Greece EBLUL