The position of minority and regional languages in the context of European language policy

Eliška Fátorová The position of minority and regional languages in the context of European language policy Abstract The thesis deals with the language policy of the European Union and examines what position minority and regional languages occupy in this policy. Chapter on language planning introduces two models of protection of these languages and a major part of the research framework deals with a Language Management Theory. The aim of the thesis is to show whether the language policy of the European Union trace elements of this theory. The first part discusses in general about Europe and languages, about the language policy of the EU, the development of which is divided into three periods. This chapter aims to answer the question whether and how the EU language policy direction has shifted during the last twenty years. To answer this question thesis uses mainly research of Michal Krzyzanowski and Ruth Wodak. Based on their analysis of EU documents concerning European language policy a shift towards a focus on EU competitiveness and employment of the population, to which the knowledge of foreign languages contributes, can be traced.. Another part focuses on minority and regional languages. There is introduced the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, which is a document of the Council of..