FUEN – Federal Union of European Nationalities

The Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) is the umbrella organisations of the autochthonous minorities of Europe. FUEN was founded in 1949 and today represents 84 organisations of the European minorities from 32 European countries.

According to its statutes and the Charter for the autochthonous national minorities, FUEN aims at the preservation and promotion of the identity, language, culture, rights and traditions of the European minorities.

The preservation of linguistic diversity and active language promotion, using the minority languages, is a central aim in the engagement of FUEN. FUEN wants that a coherent language policy is developed, which integrates the regional and minority languages. FUEN is an experienced organisation in the field of language policy and preservation of linguistic diversity. The organisation is involved in the monitoring and reporting system of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe.

The role of FUEN in the network RML2future
leading partner and specialist for the fields of European language policy and language planning

FUEN – as the largest European umbrella organisation of the autochthonous national minorities – is the main applicant of the network and initiator of the consortium. After a needs analysis amongst its member organisations and after several consultations and research, FUEN decided to establish a network in the field of languages and attracted the competent partners that are needed for such a network.

FUEN is responsible for quality management, manages the thematic fields of language planning and language policy and is responsible for the dissemination strategy of the network.

The working package Language Planning is dealing with building up competences and gathering, elaborating, editing and exchanging information on the main subject of multilingualism, language learning and linguistic diversity. The aim is to disseminate know-how in the field of language planning.
The development of strategies for minority languages to reach the European objective of multilingualism, using the available resources of natural bilingualism and multilingualism, plays a central role.
The creation of resources for implementation comprises the following remits: language marketing, language promotion, the use of ICT, strategic planning, the use of indicators and benchmarks, as well as teacher training, didactics, development of adequate teaching materials, learning plans, implementation and development of methods.

One the objectives in the field of language policy is to contribute to the development of a European language policy that takes minority languages into account.
The major part of the consists of monitoring of the policy areas that are relevant, to work out and get access to information, to ensure participation in surveys, consultations and in the opinion-forming process, and to gather information, in particularly about minority languages and about the needs that exist, and make it accessible. Furthermore the contextual relations and recommendations for political decision makers will be worked out.
The aim of the working package is to go beyond the activities in the regions, by bringing together the political decision makers and the regional-national authorities and scientific institutions that are indirectly or directly involved in language policy.

Contact

FEDERAL UNION OF EUROPEAN NATIONALITIES
FÖDERALISTISCHE UNION EUROPÄISCHER VOLKSGRUPPEN
Judith Walde
Schiffbrücke 41
D-24939 Flensburg
Telefon: +49 461 128 55
Fax: +49 461 180 70 9
Email: judith.walde@fuen.org
Internet: www.fuen.org