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The home pages for the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.nordic

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From:         Henrik Ernø 
Subject:      Re: What is the EBLUL? -- a non governmental organisation!
Date:         1996/04/10
Organization: Ecole Normale Superieure
Newsgroups:   soc.culture.nordic,talk.politics.european-Union
Message-Id:   <4kg2m2$l19@nef.ens.fr>


Jarmo Ryyti wrote:

HE>> Dear Jarmo, would you be so kind to tell me what the EBLUL *is* and
HE>> what if any competences it has?

JR> It has the highest competence in the field of minority languages
JR> in the European Union and in the member staes of Council of Europe.
JR> Those people who are in the charge of the EBLUL know very well
JR> Sweden's "problems" in the minoritylanguage question. EBLUL has
JR> a lot of activities from meetings and conferences to the
JR> publications.

Thanks for the information, however this is in total disagreement with the information that I have from the Bulletin of the EBLUL itself:

"The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages seeks to conserve and promote the lesser used autochthonous languages of the European Union, together with their associated cultures.

It is an independent body, registered as a limited compagny without share capital in Ireland and as an AISBL in Belgium.

It works in close coorperation with the European Commission and European Paliament, member state institutions the Council of Europe and other bodies in furtherance of its aims.

The Bureau is funded by subventions by the European Commision, the Irish Parliament, the Government of Luxembourg, the Provinsial Government of Friesland and Germanophone community in Belgium. Rentfree accomodation is provided for its brussels information center by the Francophone community in Belgium.

(The above information was copied from Contact Bulletin, Winter 1995.Contact Bulletin is published by the EBLUL three times a year)" end of quotation.

So from the above quotation which is taken from the EBLUL publication itself (anyone that wish to check the correctness this information can do so by doing a seach on EBLUL on the Net) the following things are clear:

1. "It is an independent body, registered as a limited compagny without share capital in Ireland and as an AISBL in Belgium."

   Now note the word *independent* ! This means that EBLUL is a private nongovernmental organisation just like Greenpeace, and not as stated by you: "the task force of the aforementioned organs who try to harmonize minority language legislation in the member states of the CE and EU."

2. The EBLUL have *no* legal or constitutional role in the EU, it is and remains and NGO or lobbyist organisation. It is simply untrue what you state: "It has the highest competence in the field of minority languages in the European Union and in the member states of Council of Europe"

   (BTW, the EBLUL does not occur in any of the list of EU organisations or bureau listed by the the EU information server, when I contacted the EU information service, they had *never* heard of the EBLUL)

3. You stated that the EBLUL was founded by the Council of Europe. This I don`t belive for the very simple reason that *IF* is was this central piece of information would certainly be mentioned by the EBLUL in their Bulletin describing their organisation! (Which they by the way do in great detail unlike a lot of other lobbyist organisations in brussels and elsewhere)

JR> EBLUL = European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages. Founded by
JR> the Council of Europe, supported by European Union and European
JR> Parlament.

JR> It is the task force of the aforementioned organs who try to
JR> harmonize minority language legislation in the member states
JR> of the CE and EU.

JR> EBLUL has the role to monitor the development in the member states
JR> and it has an advisory role towards the member states. As a result
JR> of the monitoring work it also gives statements to the CE and EU.

JR> Its role is to follow for instance how the member states implement
JR> European legislation concerning minority langauges, in practise
JR> on the basis of "The European Charter for Lingual or Regional
JR> Minorities" of the CE.

JR> Therefore EBLUL is about to create an office in Stockholm in order
JR> to evaluate and monitor Sweden *minority language policy*. Sweden's
JR> minority lnaguage policy does not meet the standards of the CE.
JR> When EBLUL estasblishes an office in a member state it is
JR> a sort of signal that the member state has problems to
JR> follow the harmonization process concerning minority language
JR> legislation.

The information you provided above is one of the most blatant examples of *misinformation* I have seen in an long time. Now I don`t know why you have done this, there is two possible examplantions:

1) You did not know the information provided by the EBLUL in their Contact Bulletin and was mistaken due to your lack of knowledge of the EU institutions! Which shows that you are a total amateur on this subject.

2) You knew that the EBLUL does not have the "It has the highest competence in the field of minority languages in the European Union and in the member states of Council of Europe.", but is only an NGO.
If this is the case then I have to say that you have proven yourself to be nothing but a base demagogue and liar.

In any case after this your general credibility in my eyes is now zero.

That is sad because the Finnish minority deserves a better advocate.

Henrik Ernø

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