EC law and minority language policy: Culture, citizenship and fundamental rights

Book abstract:

The European Community (EC) is sensitive, broadly speaking, to the deeply political questions of minority languages and linguistic diversity, not in the least because they have an important bearing on national identities and culture. The writer of this book, however, points out that in legal practice this sensitivity is difficult to both interpret and implement. To this end, the book sets out to address these issues, with the twin aims of defining an appropriate legal basis for approaching the problem of minority languages in all its complexity, and of acknowledging both the potential and limitations of this legal basis. The writer argues that the problem of language should no longer be construed as simply a matter for domestic regulation alone.

Chapter one attempts to answer the question as to why minority languages and the establishment of a language policy are significant in the first place. It provides information on the official language policy of the EC, while going on to discuss, for example, translation and interpretation, the notion of sustaining linguistic diversity, and the definitions of minority languages. Chapter two deals with the origins of EC minority language policy, beginning with the Arfé Resolution (1981), and chapter three moves on to the problem of language and EC cultural policy. In chapter four, there is a discussion of cultural policy in terms of the question of subsidiarity, and chapter five explores language and the rights of citizenship. Chapter six looks at minority language policy and its relationship with EC institutions like the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Court of Justice, and chapter seven attempts some conclusions.

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