ELEN has called for a new European Strategic Framework for European endangered and minoritised languages at the recent EESC Civil Society Week.
ELEN Secretary-General Davyth Hicks called for new measures in the March 5th session on building resilience along with NGOs Generation Climate Europe, VolontEurop, the EESC Youth Group, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Nicolas Levrat. The session explored how citizens build Europe’s resilience with a focus on European minoritised languages.
Speaking at the session, Davyth Hicks said: “Despite the respect for language diversity being a European Value, and even though minoritised language speakers represent nearly ten percent of the EU population – with around forty-five million speakers – the process of language endangerment continues, with many of the languages that we represent actively and systematically discriminated against, even though they are endangered.
“I think that there’s this assumption that languages somehow gradually fade out of use in a benign way. But no language does this. Languages become minoritized and endangered because they’ve been deliberately attacked.
“The EU must accept that the protection of language minorities and linguistic diversity is foundational to the EU, and that it must take measures to protect our languages under Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty [rights of minorities]. Furthermore, that it is empowered to do this under Article 167 of the Treaty which underlines, for example, that the EU can act to safeguard cultural heritage.
“The other point is that we know more and more about how to ensure effective language recovery, but we’re lacking the legal base, language legislation and finances to ensure that.
“Therefore, ELEN is calling on the EU, firstly, for a Strategic Framework for European Minoritised and Endangered Languages and, secondly, for an Emergency Committee for European endangered languages with its own budget line to finance vital endangered and language projects and that is empowered to intervene to protect these languages.”
Prof. Levrat referred to his recent EU official visit end-of-mission statement which has been particularly critical of the EU’s failure to protect its endangered languages and which supported the proposal for a new strategic framework. The full report goes before the UN Human Rights Council in early 2027.
Hicks outlined that ELEN will be conducting meetings with key figures in the Commission over the coming months in order to promote the ELEN proposals to the EU. The ELEN proposals were developed and discussed by ELEN members during and prior to the 2025 ELEN General Assembly in Barcelona.
Throughout the week the ELEN team, with the assistance of Elena Jimenez (from Omnium Cultural and ELEN Vice-President), also had an information stand, which gave an opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss ongoing initiatives, and explore new possibilities for cooperation with other civil society organisations, institutions and decision-makers.
The European Economic and Social Committee, like the Committee of the Regions, is a consultative body of the European Union established in 1958. It is an advisory assembly composed of representatives from employers’ associations, workers’ unions and civil society organisations. ELEN is a member of the EESC Civil Society Liaison group which gathers many of the main European NGOs.