The EFAy cautiously welcomes the new proposed amendment to the French Constitution, recognising that the 'regional' languages of the French state are part of the heritage of France.

The new amendment was voted in favour of by the Assemblée Nationale of France on the 22nd May 2008 and although still needs approval by the Senate, it is expected that it will be accepted. However, the amendment only applies to Article 1 of the Constitution and not to the much disputed Article 2, which states that the language of the Republic is French.

The amendment comes after only a couple of weeks since the Assemblée Nationale debated the 'regional' languages of France for the first time on May 7th, where the centralist position of the French state, with regard to its 'regional' languages, was reinforced. During the 7th May debate, the French Culture Minister, Christine Albanel, stated that France would not ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, because it would be unconstitutional.

Also this week France was criticised by the United Nations for failing to give appropriate support and recognition to its 'regional' languages. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said:

"29. The Committee remains concerned about the lack of official recognition of minorities within the territory of the State party. With specific regard to cultural rights, the Committee further notes with concern that some of these rights are not respected - such as the right to use a minority language, which can only be exercised in community with other members of the minority group.

30. The Committee notes with concern that the State party has not made sufficient efforts in the field of preservation and promotion of regional and minority languages and cultural heritage. The Committee also notes that the absence of formal recognition of regional and mminority languages has contributed to the constant decline in the number of speakers of such languages."

The Committee went on to recommend:

"49. The Committee, while taking note that the recognition of minority groups or collective rights is considered by the State party to be incompatible with its Constitution, wishes to reiterate that the principles of equality before the law and prohibition of discrimination are not always adequate to ensure the equal and effective enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, by persons belonging to minority groups. The Committee therefore recommends that mthe State party consider reviewing its position with regard to the recognition of minorities under the Constitution, and recognise officially the need to protect the cultural diversity of all minority groups under the jurisdiction of the State party, in accordance with the provisions of article 15.

In this regard, the Committee reiterates the recommendation formulated in its previous concluding observations (E/C.12/1/Add.72, para. 25) that the State party (i) withdraw its reservation to article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to article 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and (ii) consider ratifying the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, as well as the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages."

The full report can be found here and the full text of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can be found here.

The EFAy has written to the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Dr. Jacques Rogge, to bring to his attention the EFAy reolution passed at our April 2008 General Assembly in Palma de Mallorca.

The letter urged Dr Rogge to use its influence to ensure that no further repression of the Tibetan people by the Chinese authorities takes place in the run up to the Olympics. In particular the following points were also raised, in line with the resolution passed:

“[We] urge the IOC and China not to take the Olympic flame through Tibet, as it will be seen as a provocation by Tibetans and might give the Chinese government extra reason to increase the repression of the population”

“Note that China’s use of the Olympics to use as propaganda for world harmony while at the same time crushing all dissent in Tibet is obscene. All European athletes competing in the Olympics should look to their conscience and decide if they wish to take part in a competition in a state that is committing acts of genocide against Tibetans.”

The EFAy also wrote to the Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, Minister Yang Jiechi, requesting that China refrains from taking the flame through Tibet. Li Lizhi, of the Beijing Olympic torch relay centre, said yesterday that the torch is still planned to go through Tibet, but the time it will be in the country will be shortened due to the recent earthquake. Li Lizhi said that the torch will be in Tibet:

“… either on June 18 or June 19, as is tentatively set now. But it is still open to future adjustment.”

The full text of the letter sent to the IOC can be found here.

The full text of the EFAy resolution can be found here.

The EFAy continues to receive good press coverage from Aland thanks to EFAy Members,Youth of Äland Framtid.

Last weekend the Aland based newspaper ‘Ålandstidningen’ featured an article relating to the EFAy representation at the Youth of European Nationalities supported event, ‘The more I see you - the added value of minorities’ event in the Danish town of Gråsten.

The EFAy would like to encourage its members to publicise its activities in their own nations/regions.

Clik here for article.

Also click here for EFAy link.

The EFAy has written to the Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Minister Yang Jiechi, informing him of the resolutions passed relating to his Government, at the EFAy General Assembly on April 12th 2008.

In particular the EFAy called on Minister Yang Jiechi for his Government to renew contacts with envoys of the Dalai Lama and to respect the human rights of the Tibetan people, in particular their right to self determination. The EFAy also urged the PRC to release all Tibetan political prisoners with immediate effect and strongly condemned the incidences of imprisonment, torture, forced sterilisation of Tibetan women, rape, forced labour, restrictions on religious observance, restrictions on the use of Tibetan language, restrictions on the expression of Tibetan culture; pointing out that these actions may constitute genocide under international law.

The full text of the letter to Minister Yang Jiechi can be found here and the resolution text can be found here.

The EFAy has written to Prime Minister Mr. Hashim Thaçi of Kosova, welcoming his Governments declaration of independence on 17th February 2008 and supporting the right of the people of Kosova to self-determination.

At the same time, the EFAy strongly condemned the isolated acts of violence that followed this declaration and expressed its disappointment that Kosova’s independence was not unanimously recognised by all 27 Member-States of the European Union. Over the coming months the EFAy will be writing to those Member States who have not yet recognised Kosova’s independence and urging them to do so.

Moreover, the EFAy called for the highest standards of minority rights to be upheld for the non-majority ethnic groups in Kosovo, namely Serbs, Turks, Bosniaks and others, and called upon them to participate in Kosovo’s institutions peoples

The full text of the letter to Prime Minister Mr. Hashim Thaçi can be found here and the full text of the EFAy resolution this relates to can be found here.

The European Commission has finally published their decision on the administrative grants for 2008 and it would seem that the EFAy has been awarded the full amount of 35.000 €.

This will ensure the financial and administrative stability of the EFAy for the forthcoming year, including the EFAy Coordinator position. The EFAy will susequently be looking for a new person to take up this role shortly, so watch this space if you think you are capable of taking on the challenge!

The full published list of organisations who have received a Commission administrative grant for this year can be found here.

The EFAy participated in the European Youth Forum’s (EYF) Council of Members (COMEM) meeting in Barcelona, Catalunya on 2-3 May 2008 in their capacity as Observer Members of the EYF.

EYF representatives from youth organisations from across Europe are invited to attend the bi annual COMEM meetings and are opportunity to discuss issues relating to the work of youth organisations at a European level. One of the main issues that the EFAy was interested in was the delay by the European Commission on the decision to allocate administrative grants to organisations. Like many other European youth organisations, the EFAy is still awaiting a response from the Commission to ascertain if a new EFAy coordinator can be employed for the next year. A decision is now expected sometime this month.

Thomas Leys, who is the EFAy COMEM representative, took part in the meeting.

Link:

European Youth Forum

The topic of the yearly seminar was “the more I see you - the added value of minorities” referring to a competence analysis commissioned by the Schleswig-Holstein State parliament.

The competence analysis should serve as an instrument for the development of the multilingual region and also convince other regions to investigate the added value of multilingualism. YEN and Junge Spitzen also brought attention by issuing a resolution calling for a European study on the added value of minorities. EFAy welcomes this initiative and like to state that it is of importance for every European citizen to understand the “added value of minorities”. Minorities provide Europe with unique competences concerning multilingualism, culture and democratic participation. Issuing such a study could be perceived as an acknowledgement of the added value of minorities in states across Europe.

Later, during the seminar all delegates were involved in a simulation, in which they had to portray different fictional minorities, which came to a climax in an enacted hearing in the European Parliament.

The EFAy was invited to hold a presentation on youth politics in the European Union. Vice-president Andreas Dahlén held the presentation on Saturday 10th during the general assembly of YEN.

The EFAy is grateful for the opportunity to take part in this years YEN seminar and look forward to further co-operation with the youth organisation.

The whole speech as presented during the YEN general assembly can be found here.

Link:

http://www.gravenstein2008.dk/

The EFAy have written to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to ask the Commission to undertake an investigation into the safely and human right implications of using the controversial Mosquito ‘anti youth’ device.

The Mosquito device emits an uncomfortable high frequency sound that only youths can hear and is designed to disperse young people away from public areas where they are deemed to be causing a nuisance. Although the device has been pioneered and already used widely in the UK, there have been reports that the Mosquito is now also being used on mainland Europe. A court in Brittany recently banned the use of the device in one instance and said that is was causing discomfort to the public in the village. However, to date, the European Commission and other European state Governments have refused to ban the device.

The Young Scots for Independence called for a ban of the device last year and this year the Scottish Nationalist Party adopted their position after their Spring Conference. Bethan Jenkins (Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Member and former youth leader of Cymru X), has also suggested that Plaid is not in favour of the device.

The full text of the EFAy letter can be found here.

A new Bureau of Gazte Abertzaleak (GA) was elected this weekend (10th to 11th May 2008), at the organisation’s Annual General Assembly, including a new President.

The Assembly in Bilbo/Bilbao elected Alain Zamorano Barrenetxea as its new Secretary General, who took over from Harkaitz Millan. Zamorano promised to lead a new reinvigoragted Gazte and expressed his committment to the organisation and its activisits. A group of nine representatives were elected to the Gazte Bureau, including Lander de Bilbao − former EFAy President − who will be responsible for international relations.

Gazte have played an influencial role in the EFAy in the past, with one of its previous members being the first President of the EFAy in 2000. EFAy President, Rhisiart Tal−e−bot, attended the Assembly on behalf of the EFAy. In his address he reminded delegates that Gazte have traditionally played a leading role in the EFAy and that it was important for the work of both organisations that this strong link continues.

Gazte Abertzaleak

Jeunes l'Union Démocratique Bretonne (UDB youth) activist and EFAy Bureau member, Gael Briand, took part in the first French Parliamentary debate yesterday about the ‘regional’ languages spoken within the French state, via a live webcam link.

Gael Briand was invited by an employee of the LCB Assemblée Nationale TV channel to take part in the debate and contacted Gael after viewing his blog site, which he said was interesting. In addition to speaking about the situation of the Breton language, Gael also spoke about the important role of the European Free Alliance and ‘open nationalism’ in a Europe of the peoples.

Gael’s review of his intervention in the debate can be found on his blog by following the link below:

Gael’s LCP blog review

LCB Assemblée Nationale

It was offially announced at the EFAy General Assembly that the EFAy Coordinator, Eva Bidania, would be finishing her contract with the EFAy at the end of April 2008.

Eva will however be staying in contact with the EFAy − and even working in the same office − after she was offered the job of policy advisor with the EFA where she will be taking over from Jordi Perales.

Eva started working as the EFAy Coordinator after the 2005 EFAy General Assembly in Rennes, Brittany where she was formally voted into the position. However after working three years for the EFAy, she said that she was now looking for a new challenge. Rhisiart Tal−e−bot, President of the EFAy, said:

“We will certianly be sorry to see Eva leave the EFAy. Over the past three years she has proved herself invaluable to the smoothe functioning of the organisation and a pillar of strength to Bureau Members.

We wish her good luck in her new job and look forward to working alongside her in her new role.”

The EFAy are now waiting to hear if they will receive funding from the European Commission for a new Coordinator position.

The Bureau of the EFAy has written to the South West Regional Assembly (SWRA) in England to comment on a draft strategy document that has been produced by its regional cultural consortium.

The document ‘A better Place to Be’ aims to provide a background to a new cultural infastucture strategy for the South West of England and is the latest publication in a series of documents that have focused on culture. ‘A Better Place to Be’seeks to make decisions about the culture of Cornwall by placing the country firmly within the artifical cultural confines of the South West of England, which was created by the Westminster Government in 1999. Culture South West (CSW) is the name given to the SWRA’s cultural consortium that plans to take the project forward.

The issue of the draft strategy was raised and discussed at the EFAy’s Bureau Meeting on 10th April 2008 in Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca, where Bureau members were informed about the proposed document by EFAy President Rhisiart Tal−e−bot. The full text of the EFAy letter sent to CSW can be found below:

30/04/08

Dear Culture South West

Consultation of regional cultural strategy: A Better Place to Be

At the last Bureau meeting of the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) in Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca on April 9th 2008, members discussed the draft Culture South West document ‘A Better Place to Be’.

The document was brought to the attention of the EFAy by Kernow X, one of our members in Cornwall. The EFAy is a European political youth organisation and campaigns on a broad range of issues, with particular attention to language, culture, identity, social justice and the environment.

After considerable debate, the EFAy Bureau concluded that ‘A Better Place to Be’ did not adequately respect the territorial integrity of Cornwall or its culture and language. The following points were raised by members in relation to the document:

1. That the draft should be thoroughly revised to include a section given over entirely to Cornwall − if Cornwall should be included in this document at all.
2. The EFAy would prefer to see a separate culture document for Cornwall.
3. The Cornish language is not given the promoinence in the document that it deserves. Cornish is after all the only national minority language within the boundaries of your south west region and as you will be aware should be protected and promoted under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
4. The EFAy is concerned that the information included in the document relating to Cornwall was compiled in an amateur way, by persons will little knowledge or understanding of Cornish culture and/or identity. We would therefore recommend that Culture South West contact the Institute of Cornish Studies.
5. The special constitutional position of Cornwall as a Duchy is not referenced at all in the document and neither is Cornwall’s particular legal and cultural rights in relation to this status.
6. Cornish youth culture needs to be given prominence in the final document.

We hope that our suggestions are useful in producing a more reliable document that takes into consideration the unique culture of Cornwall. The EFAy believe that it is important for matters relating to Cornish culture should be discussed and decided upon at a Cornish regional level and not taken out of context and amalgamated into other significantly more prominent cultures such England.

Yours sincerely

EFAy Bureau
European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy)