September 2007: Visit of Comittee of Experts yn Fryslân
A delegation of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional and Minority languages of the Council of Europe visited the province of Fryslân on Wednesday September 5th. The visit followed the third report of the Dutch government describing their actions towards the protection and promotion of the Frisian language for the period 2002 – 2005. The drafting of these reports is part of the actions described in the Charter for the Regional and Minority languages of the Council.
All organisations and authorities with a responsibility towards the Frisian language and culture were invited to give their comments on the report and the present situation of the Frisian language. Among these also the Frisian Academy and the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning participated in this hearing. The Frisian Academy is well equiped for research in the field of language policy and education, the Mercator Research Centre hosted at the Academy has recently published its report in collaboration with the Council of Europe on the development of minimum standards on language education. The Mercator Research Centre aims to undertake further actions and research in the field of the implementation of the undertakings of article 8 Education of the Charter.
At first sight the delegation was not very impressed with the findings, there has been only little progress in the actions to secure and improve the situation for the Frisian language as second national language of the Netherlands.