The Euromosaic project is a study and survey of minority and regional languages in member states by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
of the
European Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
(EC) and its successor, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
(EU).
The study documented the linguistic diversity of the 12 original EC countries and later of its newer members who joined the EU.
The situation of linguistic minorities within the EC remained undocumented by the organisation, as over 10 million people spoke a first language other than the official recognised languages of member states.
[.] As the attention on economic and European integration evolved, language diversity became an area of focus with the aim of creating a new policy for European languages and cultures.
[.]
In 1992, the European Commission undertook two preliminary studies of the subject.
Later, using those two bibliographical studies as a basis, the European Commission expanded the scope and 4 research centres became part of the project.
[.][.] They were the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
), the Centre de Recherche sur le Multilinguisme/Onderzoekscentrum Voor Meertaligheid (
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
), the Institut de Sociolingüística Catalana (
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
) and the Research Centre of Wales (
Bangor).
[.] These centres organised teams of researchers who did extensive fieldwork and gathered reliable data on the linguistic and socio–economic situation of communities with minority languages resulting in the production of multiple large reports.
A total of 90 minority languages have been examined between the 1990s–2000s.
The results of the Euromosaic project described
communities with minority languages were in areas usually sidelined socio-politically and economically by the state.
[.] The study reported economic progress and extensive state based assistance toward minority language communities was needed, otherwise without those factors a minority language could disappear.
The interaction between a language group and the state affected the conditions for linguistic maintenance or disappearance and was dependant on elements such as legitimacy (legislation, social policy), legal status and institutionalisation.
[.] The role of demographic size also overall determined minority language retention with bigger groups more able than some smaller communities.
[.] Another factor was the involvement of a minority language in education and its effect on
language prestige.
See also
*
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 ...
*
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, t ...
*
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) is a multilateral treaty of the Council of Europe aimed at protecting the minority rights, rights of minorities. It came into effect in 1998 and by 2009 it had been ratif ...
*
Languages of the European Union
The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which three English, French and Germanwere considered "procedural" languages, but this notion was abandoned by the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all offic ...
References
External links
* {{cite web, author=Euromosaic, title=Classificació per llengües, url=http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/homect/index2.html, publisher=
Open University of Catalonia
The Open University of Catalonia (; ) is a private Open supported learning, open university based in Barcelona, Spain.
The UOC offers graduate and postgraduate programs in Catalan language, Catalan, Spanish language, Spanish and English languag ...
(UOC), date=2006, access-date=20 July 2024, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916055513/http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/homect/index2.html, archive-date=16 September 2018, url-status=live, df=dmy-all – index with summarised Euromosaic reports (in English, French and a few in Catalan) on several minority languages
European Commission
Languages of Europe