According to official estimates, 40 million citizens of the European Union use a minority or regional language together with the official language/languages of the member state to which they belong. With EU enlargement in 2004, this figure is set to grow by a further six million. In spite of this, there do not exist any legislative measures on minority and regional languages at the EU level. The lack of any such provisions has recently been deplored by the European Parliament, which approved the report of its culture Commission on 4 September. In view of the forthcoming intergovernmental Conference, MEPs ask that an explicit reference to the promotion of linguistic diversitie be included among the Union’s provisions on cultural policy. They also ask for a feasibility study to be carried out on the creation of a European agency for linguistic diversity and language learning.
