The General Court of the European Union has concluded on Tuesday that the European Union already has sufficient measures to protect minority languages in the common territory, so that no new legislative proposals are necessary in this regard, thus giving reason to the European Commission against a citizens’ initiative that raised this issue before the European Court of Justice.
The Luxembourg ruling responds to an appeal by the movement that took the European citizens’ initiative ‘Minority Safe Pack’ to the Community Executive to protect national and linguistic minorities by law.
The Community services accepted to register the demand, considering that it did fall under its scope of action, but after its examination they concluded that it was not necessary to advance in that line.
In the opinion of the CJEU, the actions already undertaken by the EU to emphasize the importance of regional or minority languages and to promote cultural and linguistic diversity are sufficient to achieve the objectives of this initiative.
Among the changes called for by the promoters of the initiative was the creation of a center on linguistic diversity in the field of regional and minority languages, financed by the Union and responsible for promoting diversity at all levels.
They also advocate a change in EU legislation to ensure quasi-equal treatment between stateless persons and EU citizens and changes to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive to ensure freedom to provide services and reception of audiovisual content in regions where national minorities reside.
In this context, the Luxembourg-based Court concludes that the analysis procedure carried out by the Commission and the way in which it motivated its decision not to adopt any additional legal act to achieve the objective of protecting minority languages is acceptable.
