The Directorate General for Culture and Education of the European Commission plans to launch a call for proposals, under the budget line for the promotion and safeguarding of regional and minority languages, to the value about Euro 2.5 m.

Following the publication of the call for proposals in the Official Journal, probably during March, organisation may propose their project to the Commission. The application deadline is in the end of May.

The main points to be kept in mind are the following :

The project must aim to promote and to safeguard regional and minority languages of the European Union. Artificial languages such as Esperanto, languages of the immigrants, or dialects of an existing standard are not electable.

The accepted projects will receive funding up to 50% of the entire budget. As this is co-financing, it is up the organisation to find the rest.

The European dimension, on the base of a real partnership with organisations from at least 2 other member state will be particularly appreciated. We would therefore advise the organisation to start searching for potential partners within the European Union.

Projects will have to carry a dissemination potential, which means that they should be adaptable to different initiatives and contexts. They will have to be innovative.

Financial rules are to be defined by the Commission and are not yet available.

As soon as the call for proposals is published, the application form will be available directly from the Commission :

DG Education - Culture

Rue de la Loi 200

B-1049 Bruxelles

+32 (02) 299.01.04

+32 (02) 299.63.21

http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/education_culture/index_fr.htm

or from

Bureau européen pour les langues moins répandues,

Bertrand-Romain Menciassi

Rue Saint-Josse, 49

B-1210 Bruxelles

+32 (02) 218 25 90

+32 (02) 218 19 74

The European Bureau for lesser-used languages, an independent organisation from the Commission, will help you to redact your application and to find partners. Under request, training sessions can be organised in the communities. Please contact us in case of need.