Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organisation. It includes 47 member states, 28 of which are members of the European Union. All Council of Europe member states have signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Canada has had observer status since April 3, 1996.
Linguistic Policies
The Council of Europe’s activities to promote linguistic diversity and language learning in the field of education are carried out within the framework of the European Cultural Convention, (1954) ratified by 49 states.
The Language Policy Unit (Strasbourg) implements intergovernmental medium-term programmes with a strong emphasis on activities and tools to support policy development. The Unit’s programmes are complemented by those of the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML - Graz, Austria) with a particular focus on implementation of policy. More
European Language Gazette
The European Language Gazette, the ECML’s e-newsletter, provides up-to-date news about the ECML (events, projects, resources), the Language Policy Unit and other relevant sectors of the Council of Europe, as well as our partners. It focuses on national developments in the field of language education in the member states and beyond. More
European Day of Languages
The general objectives of the European Day of Languages are the following:
- Europe’s rich linguistic diversity, which must be preserved and enhanced;
- The need to diversify the range of languages people learn (to include less widely used languages), which results in pluralingualism;
- The need for people to develop some degree of proficiency in two languages or more to be able to play their full part in democratic citizenship in Europe.