Network of European Language Planning Boards
During the past twenty years, many European regional democratic institutions have established language boards or similar organisations with a statutory role to promote regional and minority languages. It became apparent at the beginning of the 21st century that there would be considerable benefits if these organisations were to work together. The European Network of European Language Boards was set up in October 2001 to explore the possibilities of cooperation on a European level.
At the first meeting of the Network a list of main objectives was drawn: the Network would strive to:
- strengthen the cooperation between official agencies with legislative basis that promote minority languages;
- agree priorities for cooperating on future projects
- explore the opportunities arising from the expansion of the EU;
- develop a coordinated voice for minority languages on a European level.
The criteria for membership of the Network is that the language concerned has a legislative basis. The membership of the Network includes the following regional institutions which all have a linguistic legislative basis:
- The Welsh Language Board, Wales
- Bord na Gàidhlig, Scotland
- Foras na Gaeilge, Ireland
- The Regional Government of the Basque Country
- The Regional Government of Galicia
- The Regional Government of Catalonia
- Berie foar it Frysk, Friesland
- Svenska Finlands folkting, Finland
In December 2003 the Network was successful in gaining funding from the European Commission’s Action Plan for Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity call for proposals to further extend its work. The grant funding has allowed the Network to focus upon a list of priority issues that affect regional and minority languages across Europe, while identifying and supporting best practice in language planning.
The four following issues were chosen by all members of the Network as the issues upon which they wanted to concentrate their work:
- language transmission in the family
- trilingual and immersion education
- information and communication technology
- marketing