Articles in Eurolang

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Forwarded from Eurolang.org

Russian community activism gets boost in post-election atmosphere
Brussel/Bruxelles 6/21/2004 by James Fife

In the wake of the European Parliament elections last week, activism on
the part of the Russian-speaking communities in some of the new member
states and across Europe has taken an upturn. The biggest development has
been the founding of a pan-Europe political party to represent the
interests of these communities.

Catalan fury over language clause as EU chiefs hail Constitution deal

Brussel / Bruxelles 6/21/2004 by Davyth Hicks

EU chiefs hailed their agreement on the Draft Constitution over the
weekend following the end of talks early on Saturday morning. While EU
leaders were celebrating the deal the Catalan press and language activists
have reacted with fury to the omission of their, and other non state
languages, from any prospect of elevation to Treaty language status.
Catalans, for example, will still have to use Spanish in any
correspondence with EU institutions. Furthermore, despite EU claims of
"respecting cultural and linguistic diversity" only official languages can
be used for the translation, thereby excluding Breton, Occitan and
Corsican, which are not recognised by France.

No great surprises after European election in Wales

Abergele 6/18/2004 by Huw Morgan

The main changes in the European elections in Wales was that Plaid Cymru
lost one seat and were displaced by the Conservatives which became the
second party and the fact that the eurosceptic and anti-devolutionist
United Kingdom Independence Party received about 10 per cent of the Welsh
vote.

IGC: No Treaty status for non-state languages, Treaty translation only
Brussel / Bruxelles 6/17/2004 by Davyth Hicks

The Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) will decide today and tomorrow
whether non-state languages may be used for translations of the Draft
Constitutional Treaty once it is signed. The request by the Spanish
government that Catalan, Galician and Basque have Treaty status, giving
the right to send and receive correspondence in one's own language, has
been left out from the Irish Presidency's revision.

Irish election results look good for the language. Nine of the Republic's
thirteen new MEPs support full official status for Irish

Brussel / Bruxelles 6/16/2004 by Davyth Hicks

The result of the European elections in the Irish Republic suggest that
the controversy over Irish not being an official EU working language may
have played a part in the outcome of the election. Seán Ó Neachtain MEP
tells Eurolang that, "In the new term of the European Parliament, I will
continue to put pressure on the government to make a formal application
[for full working status] as soon as possible."

EU elections : Polish MEP list will be short on language supporters
Brussel/Bruxelles 6/16/2004 by James Fife

Surveying the provisional results of the European Parliament elections in
Poland provides only slight cheer for supporters of minority languages and
regionalism. This is the opinion of Tomasz Wicherkiewicz, president of the
Poland Member State Committee for the European Bureau for Lesser Used
Languages (Pol-EBLUL), who spoke with Eurolang today about the new slate
of MEPs. Wicherkiewicz, who is with the Department of Language Policy and
Minority Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, stated that
"Unfortunately two of the most language-supportive candidates were not on
the list of the elected, although there was some certainty they would get
through."

Irish Presidency against Catalan, Basque and Galician having Treaty language status?

Brussel / Bruxelles 6/14/2004 by Davyth Hicks

According to the Catalan, Spanish and French press the Irish Presidency
opposes Catalan, Basque and Galician becoming Treaty languages. El Pais
and Avui both reported in mid May that according to 'official Irish
sources' the Irish Presidency is against the three languages having
official status. Instead the languages will only be used to translate the
Treaty, but will not be given Treaty status themselves.

EP election results in Estonia reflect language issues
Tallinn 6/14/2004 by Alexander Shegedin

Turnout for the European Parliament elections in Estonia was one of the
lowest in the EU-26.7%-and the lowest in the history of Estonian
elections. The ruling right-centre coalition won only one of six mandates,
with five seats in the EP going to the opposition. The main sensation was
the success of the opposition Social-Democrats, which was achieved through
the outstanding showing by Toomas Ilves, a former foreign minister. He
collected more than 76,000 votes and has guaranteed three seats for his
party. The second best personal result was shown by Siiri Oviir (Centre
Party) at 16,633.