The European Language Equality Network (ELEN) is an international non-governmental organization that is active at the European level which works to protect and promote European lesser-used languages (

lesser-used languages A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

), i.e.

regional languages * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Lan ...

minority languages A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

, endangered languages, co-official languages and national languages of small nations.

History

ELEN was formed after the closure of EBLUL,

European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages The European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL) was a non-governmental organisation that was set up to promote linguistic diversity and languages. It was founded in 1982 and discontinued in 2010. The organisation had close ties with both the E ...

, a non-governmental organization with similar goals founded in 1982 and closed in 2010.

Missions

The missions and work of the NGO fall into different types of intervention: * lobbying work aimed at the main international organizations involved in the defense of human and collective rights (

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

). ELEN presents itself as the voice of the least audible minorities, in particular by bringing demands to elected bodies such as the European Parliament. The NGO also carries out actions at local level, for example by engaging in the national campaign in favor of the ratification of the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages 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. However, the ...

in France, by committing to or bringing to the United Nations a report deploring the attitude of the Spanish government towards non-Spanish speaking minorities, and by associating itself with the concerns of the defenders of minority languages in the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. * initiating or participating in monitoring and action projects on minority languages. ELEN notably contributed to the launch of the

Protocol for the Guarantee of Linguistic Rights Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technolog ...

of San Sebastián, which lists concrete measures to ensure respect for linguistic rights in Europe, as well as to the ''Digital Language Diversity Project'', a project for creating and sharing of digital content using minority languages.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:European Language Equality Network Language policy of the European Union Cultural organizations based in France