The Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) has decided to establish a network for the promotion of multilingualism, with particular regard for the regional- and minority languages (RML). An application within the EU-promotional programme “Lifelong Learning” has been submitted.

The application constitutes a reaction to the restructuring of language promotion by the European union and to the request of the member organizations, which was expressed not lastly in the language-resolution from the FUEN-Congress 2007 in Tallinn. 

Preceding the application, preparations have taken a period of almost two years. This reaches from a requirements analysis of the minority organizations to the examination of policies and goals within general and occupational education, as well as languages, research of reports, projects and studies, deliberations with experts, the European Commission, the European Parliament and further organizations active within the area of languages.

The network is based on the circa 100 organizations of the European autochthonous minorities, organized in the FUEN and YEN.

The network has the following main goals:

I Promotion of the European multilingualism, including the minority languages spoken in the regions

II Preservation of linguistic diversity in Europe and above all the endangered minority languages through augmentation of prestige and acknowledgement

III Taking advantage of the regional educational potential in cooperation between practitioners, experts and decision makers

IV Participation in development and implementation of a European language policy, including minority languages

V Establishment of a professional network of the minority languages for the implementation of the above mentioned goals.

The main thought is to make better use of the natural resource of bi- or multilingualism, which is present in many European regions, including the minority languages, as potential.

With the motto RML2Future a work programme has been compiled in a cooperation between the European Academy Bozen, which is responsible for the coordination of the network, as well as further partners.

The new network and backgrounds on the current EU-language policy will be presented at the FUEN-Congress in Pécs in May.

The application was compiled under the management of Susann Schenk, responsible for the Brussels Project, in cooperation with Judith Walde, Frank de Boer and Jan Diedrichsen, the partner organizations and the FUEN.