GA113-03
NPLD
General Assembly Meeting
Bilbao,The Basque Country
6th June 2013
Report for the period October 2012 – May 2013
- Developments at NPLD in 2012-13
There have been major developments at NPLD since it was establishedas an independent entity in April 2012. The whole focus of the network has changed with much more emphasis now being placed on being seen as a very proactive advocate of CRSS languages at both a European and a European Union level. There is no doubt that by now NPLD is seen by the European Parliament and EU Commission as the partner organisation when issues arise regarding the languages of minorities, regions and smaller states. On the Website of the Commission, when it refers to regional and minority languages, the only reference to an ongoing organisation which deals with these issues is a reference to NPLD:
‘The Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) is a pan-European Network which covers regional, minority, indigenous, cross-border and smaller national languages to promote linguistic diversity in Europe. The main focus is providing information about and easy access to a large network of organisations that can share ideas, information and best practice regarding the promotion of less widely used languages.’
NPLD’s presence has been very obvious during the recent discussions on the own initiative motion sponsored by Francois Alfonsi MEP on Endangered Languages. During the discussions on this motion at the Education and Culture Committee of the European Parliament the three organisations invited to make presentations were The Council of Europe, UNESCO and NPLD. NPLD has also worked closely with Mr Alfonsi in developing his initiative and in providing background information for the Parliament.
NPLD’s new initiative, The Roadmap for Linguistic Diversity, which was recently launched by the Irish Minister, Mr Dinny Mc Ginley is also seen by many influential MEP’s as a very significant development which will build on the progress already being made through the motion on Endangered Languages. Indeed many see this initiative as the best way of pushing the issue of CRSS languages up the political agenda.
Two other major developments have also taken place during this period. The first is that the NPLD as a network has been successful in being offered grant funding by the European Union as part of the Lifelong Learning Programme, KA2, Languages, Networks. Our challenge in this context is to agree a bank guarantee for this funding in order to ensure the early release of the grant. This will greatly assist in making us financially viable over the next three years.
The second development is that we now have a new Chair, Jannewietske de Vries. This is a major change for the network, as up until now NPLD has been chaired by public servants. Having a Chair who is a politician takes the network into a different arena and ensures that many doors are opened to us which were difficult for us to open previously. I would like to thank her for her work with the network over the past year.
- Appointment of Chair and Co-Chairs.
From May to October 2012, Araceli Diaz de Lezana and Peggy Heikkinen took on the task of co-chairing the network and I’d like to express our gratitude to both of them for the work they undertook as Co Chairs of NPLD and for the leadership they provided during quite a difficult period in the development of the network.
At the General Assembly meeting held in Corsica in 2012, the network elected a new Chair, as already noted, and also a new Vice Chair, Yvonne Griley. Yvonne will be standing down from her post as Vice Chair at this year’s GA and I would like thank her for her support during the year. Peggy Heikkinen’ two year term as Vice Chair is also coming to an end, and again I would like to express our gratitude to her for all the work she has undertaken in developing NPLD in its new form and also for keeping a close financial eye on the workings of the secretariat.
- Work of NPLD
Policy initiatives
Roadmap for Linguistic Diversity
The concept of developing a Roadmap for Linguistic Diversity has moved ahead substantially since the last General Assembly meeting. The Roadmap has been discussed with Jonathan Hill, Head of Cabinet for Mrs Vassiliou Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth, with numerous MEP’s, but specifically Kinga Gal and Francois Alfonsi, and also with the officials of the European Commission who have specific responsibility for multilingualism. The initiative is seen as interesting and one which will need to find its place in the new European Commission 2020 programme.
The next step for the Roadmap is to agree a first draft of the text before we go out to consultation. A High Level group will be established to consider the text and this group will meet in the autumn 2013. The membership of this group is being finalised at present. The Roadmap will need to be completed in time for the run up to the next European Parliament elections. The Roadmap was official launched at the Irish Embassy as part of the Irish Presidency of the European Union and we would like to thank the Government of Ireland for their support in arranging this successful event.
Reports and Projects
At the Steering Committee meeting held in Brussels in February, the paper commissioned by NPLD on Language and Economy was presented by the author of the report, Prof François Grin, University of Geneva. This paper will be further utilised as we progress with one of the EU funded work packages and roundtable talks will be held in Brussels using this paper as a basis for discussions.
The paper commissioned by NPLD from Prof Peter Krauss will be developed and delivered during 2013-14 and will be ready for discussion as we reach the work package on Language and Migration in 2014.
A meeting of the three experts commissioned by NPLD to write papers on its behalf was held in December 2012 and this led to a greater understating of how the links between languages and the economy and migration could be developed. We also learnt that they are not easy topics for CRSS language communities to grapple with!
Measuring language usage
One of the major projects sponsored by NPLD and the Government of the Basque Country over the past two years will be launched at this year’s GA. The project which is called ‘A guide to language use observation, Survey Methods’, provides a guide to measuring language usage in informal situations.. This is a very exciting project and it will be of great value to every language community as they attempt to measure the success of their language policies.
- Conferences,Seminars and Presentations
NPLD Conference in Brussels, February2013
Languages? Let’s Be Franca! How to develop true linguistic diversity
NPLD’s annual conference was held in Brussels on Thursday, 21 February 2013 at the offices of the Government of Catalonia. The main event of the day was the presentation of a report commissioned by NPLD by Prof Colin Williams from the University of Cardiff, Wales, which provides an overview of language strategies being developed by Governments in Europe to promote Linguistic Diversity. The report is a commentary on a much longer report which looks in more detail at steps taken by individual government to promote the use of their languages. This longer report will be shared with NPLD members later on during 2013.
The conference also included a presentation by Pierre Mairesse, Director General of EAC at the European Commission. During his presentation Mr Mairesse set NPLD an interesting challenge which was, in the context of the new European 2020 programme, for NPLD to inspire the Commission. This will be our challenge over the coming months! Two other very interesting papers were also presented at the conference which looked at the planning processes adopted in the development of language planning strategies in Ireland and in the Basque Country. The evaluation reports provided by those who attended the conference were very positive indeed.
Endangered Languages Seminar
A round table discussion was held with representatives from the indigenous smaller language communities at Leeuwarden, Friesland in November 2012. 16 representatives from these communities were present at the discussion sessions. A full report has been produced which looks at the issue of Endangered Languages. The report will be presented at the GA.
Media Festival in Swansea
Following on from the conference jointly organised by NPLD, The Welsh Language Board and S4C in December 2011, which looked at the role of media and social media in the context of minority languages, a discussion seminar was held in April 2013 at this year’s Celtic Media Festival in Swansea, Wales.The two hour discussion seminar was jointly organised by the World Indigenous Television and Broadcasting Network and NPLD and was sponsored by S4C. The session was addressed by the Chair of NPLD and contributions were also made by representatives from New Zealand, Australia, the Sami Community, Scotland Wales and Ireland. Following the seminar a number of media organisationshave agreed to set up a network to share experiences, programmes and resources.
Sports meet Languages
In October 2012, CEO of NPLD made a presentation at an EU sponsored conference for young people from minority language communities in Udine,Friuli Venetia Julia in Northern Italy. The theme of the two day conference was how you can use sport to promote the use of minority languages. At least three hundred young people attended the conference and there was an great list of very good speakers talking about all aspects of sport and languages.
Language Rich Europe
CEO attended two conferences arranged by the British Council to launch its latest EU sponsored report called Language Rich Europe which looked at how Member States support languages. This is a fascinating study which attempts to gauge the vitality of languages across Europe. The main emphasis is on the actions of Member States, but the report also looked at case studies from Catalonia, Friesland and Wales in order to see how languages are promoted at a regional level. This report will be useful for NPLD as it compiles the Roadmap for Linguistic Diversity
SvenskaKulturfonden Conference
Prof Colin Williams and the CEO of NPLD took part in a conference held by the Svenska Kulturfonden from Finland. The conference, called ‘It’s up to the majority’, was arranged by Kulturfonden in Brussels in November 2012. The key note speaker at the event was Martti Ahtisaari the former President of Finland. The conference gave us the opportunity to float the idea of a European Roadmap for Linguistic Diversity.
Presentations were also made at:
European Parliament, IntergroupforTraditionalMinorities, National CommunitiesandLanguageson the work of the NPLDnetwork
Bangor University, Wales- Symposium on Language Planning
Hunaniaith, Gwynedd County Council,- Language Management Issues
- European Parliament
The advocacy work of NPLD at the European Parliament and with the European Commission will be dealt with in full in the Policy Adviser’s report.
Meetings/ Partnership working
Chairs’ committee- one meeting held in Leeuwarden and one Skype meting
Think Tank- One meeting held in Amsterdam in January 2013
Steering Committee- Two meetings of the Steering Committee held, both in Brussels in February and April 2013
Council of Europe- meeting held with the Jorg Horn from the Secretariat of the European Charter for regional and minority languages
BIC British Irish Council Discussions with HUW Onllwyn Jones and Máire Killoran
Discussions with possible new members, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Fruli, Ladinia
FUEN Discussions with Jan Diedrichson
- European Union Grant related issues
NPLD grant from European Union
NPLD have been offered grant funding for the period Jan 2013 to December 2015. The funding is mainly for the purpose of networking which involves holding a series of meeting of the network to discuss a range of agreed topics. These topics link in very closely with the themes that the network has already set as priority area for itself. However, in order to release the funding, the European Commission requires a bank guarantee for the funding. NPLD’s bank is unwilling to agree to such a request and therefore we are in the process of finding a third party organisation to provide a guarantee on our behalf. This is not an easy task.
Melt application INFORM
Three members of the network led by The FryskAkademy have submitted an application to the EU Commission for a follow up project to the MELT project. The project aims at the promotion of a positive multilingual mindset for young learners and their families, mainly focused on the regional and minority languages, but also linked to immigrant languages. They are yet to receive an answer to whether they have been successful or not.
- Operational matters of NPLD Ltd
Financial situation and fees
The global financial situation is also having an effect on the range and diversity of work that NPLD is able to undertake. Understandably some members are finding it difficult to find the full agreed membership fee. The SC has already agreed to propose to the GA that the membership fee for the majority of Full Members should be cut by half for the year 2013. Carryover funding from previous years will be used then to allow the network to work to its new restricted budget. NPLD will therefore need to find a way to guarantee the grant funding from the EU, otherwise the network will find itself in financial difficulties towards the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014.
Staffing
One of the major contributory factors to the increased visibility of NPLD has been the fact that since last summer all members of NPLD staff, employees and consultants have been in in place and operating well. I’d like to thank them all for their very hard work. The new office has been established and systems are in place to deal with the work of running a network. We have received anexcellent report from our external auditors. This is very good news indeed at the end of our first year of operations when there were so many new decisions to take and systems to set up. I would like, especially to thank Sioned and Vicent for their very hard work over the last year and also for their willingness to work as a good team.
Website
Our new or revised website is now up and running and looks much more interactive than before. We also have a good twitter and news feed running. We hope to further develop the website over the coming months and to develop the website as a resource library where you can look for examples of good practise from other counties and languages. We will need the help of all the members to makesure that this development performs well.