Articles in Eurolang

[Harold F. Schiffman]

EUROPEAN ELECTIONS SPECIAL: LANGUAGE ISSUES ON THE AGENDA IN ESTONIA
Tallinn 5/21/2004 by Aleksandr Shegedin

In the first of a special election series, Eurolang's Baltic States
correspondent, Aleksandr Shegedin, looks at the part language issues are
playing in the run-up to Estonia's first European election.

UNESCO FORUM. WANTED: BRETON LANGUAGE ACT
Naoned / Nantes 5/20/2004 by Davyth Hicks

UNESCO's forum on human rights, held in Nantes and ending yesterday,
turned its attention to language rights on Tuesday with politicians
calling for France to help reverse the decline of Breton. Eurolang spoke
to the regional Vice President,Yann Ber Thomin, about developing the
Breton language.

PLAID CYMRU CALL FOR WELSH TO HAVE OFFICIAL EU RECOGNITION
Brussel / Bruxelles 5/13/2004 by Davyth Hicks

Welsh MEP Eurig Wyn (Plaid Cymru/EFA) is this week calling on the UK
Government to follow Spain's example by recognising minority languages
such as Welsh within the EU. Mr Wyn is writing to Tony Blair and Britain's
Europe Minister urging them to follow Spain's lead and reminding them that
now that many people in Wales regularly use Welsh to communicate with
government, it is only fair that they should also be able to communicate
with EU institutions in their own language.

GERMAN CZECHS WELCOME EU ENLARGEMENT
Biel/ Bienne 5/12/2004 by Peter Josika

German minority leaders of the Czech Republic have expressed overall
satisfaction with the country's recent accession to the European Union.

FURTHER DISCUSSIONS ON EU STATUS FOR CATALAN, BASQUE AND GALICIAN: FRENCH
FOREIGN MINISTER BARNIER WARNS AGAINST 'RE-OPENING DIFFICULT ISSUES
Barcelona 5/12/2004 by Alexia Bos Solé and Davyth Hicks

There have been further developments on last week's Spanish government
decision at the inter governmental conference (IGC) for recognition at the
EU level of the official languages in Spain other than Spanish, that is
Basque, Catalan and Galician. The aim is to give these languages a similar
status to Irish. While European Parliament leader Pat Cox warmly welcomed
the proposal in Catalonia yesterday, French Foreign Minister, Michel
Barnier, warned against the "reopening of difficult issues".

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