European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages

Member states that have signed and ratified in dark green, those that have signed but not ratified in light green, those that have neither signed nor ratified white, non-member states of the Council of Europe grey

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. It only applies to languages traditionally used by the nationals of the State Parties (thus excluding languages used by recent immigrants from other states), which significantly differ from the majority or official language (thus excluding what the state party wishes to consider as mere local dialects of the official or majority language) and that either have a territorial basis (and are therefore traditionally spoken by populations of regions or areas within the State) or are used by linguistic minorities within the State as a whole (thereby including such languages as Yiddish and Romani, which are used over a wide geographic area).

Languages that are official within regions or provinces or federal units within a State (for example Catalan in Spain) are not classified as official languages of the State and may therefore benefit from the Charter. On the other hand, the Republic of Ireland has not been able to sign the Charter on behalf of the Irish language (although a minority language) as it is defined as the first official language of the state. The United Kingdom has, though, ratified the Charter in respect of (among other languages) Irish in Northern Ireland. France, although a signatory, has been constitutionally blocked from ratifying the Charter in respect of the languages of France.

The charter provides a large number of different actions state parties can take to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages. There are two levels of protection—all signatories must apply the lower level of protection to qualifying languages. Signatories may further declare that a qualifying language or languages will benefit from the higher level of protection, which lists a range of actions from which states must agree to undertake at least 35.

1 Languages protected under the Charter
2 Notes and references
3 See also
4 External links

Languages protected under the Charter

Countries that have ratified the Charter, and languages for which the ratification was made:

Armenia ratification: 25 January 2002

Austria ratification: 28 June 2001^[1]

Croatian of Burgenland
Slovene (in Carinthia and Styria)
Hungarian (in Burgenland and Vienna)
Czech (in Vienna)
Slovak (in Vienna)
Romani (in Burgenland)

Croatia ratification: 5 November 1997

Cyprus ratification: 26 August 2002

Czech Republic ratification: 15 November 2006

Slovak (parts II and III, across the whole territory)
Polish (part II; and part III in Moravia-Silesia, in districts Frydek-Místek and Karviná)
German (part II only)
Romani (part II only)

Denmark ratification: 8 September 2000^[2]

German (in Southern Jutland)

Finland ratification: 9 November 1994

Sami
Swedish (co-official language)

Germany ratification: 16 September 1998^[3]

Danish (in Schleswig-Holstein)
Upper Sorbian (in the Free State of Saxony)
Lower Sorbian (in Brandenburg)
North Frisian (in Schleswig-Holstein)
Saterland Frisian (in Lower Saxony)
Romani (across Germany)
Low German (part III in Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein); (part II in Brandenburg, Northrhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt)

Hungary ratification: 26 April 1995

Liechtenstein ratification: 18 November 1997

No regional or minority languages

Luxembourg ratification: 22 June 2005

No regional or minority languages^[4]

Montenegro ratification: 15 February 2006

Netherlands ratification: 2 May 1996

West Frisian (in Friesland)
Limburgish (across the Netherlands)
Low Saxon (across the Netherlands)
Romani (across the Netherlands)
Yiddish (across the Netherlands)

Norway ratification: 10 November 1993^[5]

Sami (parts II and III)
Kven (part II only)
Romanes (part II only)
Romani (part II only)

Poland ratification: 12 February 2009^[6]

Romania ratification 24 October 2007 ^[7]

Part II applied to:

Part III applied to:

Serbia ratification: 15 February 2006^[8]^[9]

Slovakia ratification: 5 September 2001

Slovenia ratification: 4 October 2000

Spain ratification: 9 April 2001

Basque (official in the Basque Country and part of Navarre)
Catalan (official in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia)
Valencian (oficial in the Valencia)^[10]
Galician, present in Galicia; and in part of Asturias, Leon and Zamora provinces (official in Galicia)

Sweden ratification: 9 February 2000

Switzerland ratification: 23 December 1997

Ukraine ratification: 19 September 2005

Ukraine does not specify languages by name, but rather ratifies on behalf of "the languages of the following ethnic minorities of Ukraine":^[11]

United Kingdom ratification : 27 March 2001

All languages are ratified as applicable to the territory of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, except Manx, which is ratified on behalf of the Crown dependency of the Isle of Man.

Cornish
Irish
Manx (ratified on behalf of Government of the Isle of Man)
Scots in Scotland and Northern Ireland (Ulster Scots)
Scottish Gaelic
Welsh

Notes and references

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)

^ Austria has ratified the Charter for each language in respect of specific Länder
^ Notes Verbales accompanying the Danish ratification specified that, whilst the Charter was not going to be ratified in respect of the two languages, Faroese and Greenlandic are each official in their respective territories
^ Germany has ratified the Charter for each language in respect of specific Länder
^ Report of the Committee of Experts on Luxembourg, December 2008
^ Report clarifying Norway's implementation of the Charter
^ http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?NT=148&CM=8&DF=23/01/05&CL=ENG&VL=1
^ Romanian law no. 282/2007
^ Ratified as Serbia and Montenegro on December 22, 2005
^ [1] (Serbian)
^ [2] Aplicación de la Carta en España, Segundo ciclo de supervisión. Estrasburgo, 11 de diciembre de 2008. A.1.3.28 pag 7 ; A.2.2.5 pag 107
^ As of^[update] July 2007, Ukraine's entry on the Council of Europe site states the following Ukraine declares that the provisions of the Charter shall apply to the languages of the following ethnic minorities of Ukraine : Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Greek, Jewish, Crimean Tatar, Moldavian, German, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Slovak and Hungarian.

External links

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European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

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European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages

Contents

Languages protected under the Charter

Notes and references

See also

External links