14 May 1993

Doc. 6846

1403-17/5/93-6-E

MOTION FOR AN ORDER

on increasing the number of official languages

of the Council of Europe

presented by Mr DIMMER and others

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      The Assembly,

1.       Considering that the question of increasing the number of official languages was discussed in the course of the debate on the adoption of a revised Statute of the Council of Europe, on the basis of unresearched amendments;

2.       Being of the opinion that the enlargement of the Council of Europe towards central and eastern Europe and the acquisition of a pan-European dimension provide ample justification for the addition of further important languages widely spoken in Europe to the two official languages agreed in 1949 when the Council of Europe was founded;

3.       Considering that such a decision must reflect the objective reality of the way the various languages are used within the continent of Europe, both as mother tongue and for communication;

4.       Instructs its Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme to prepare a report on this question by the beginning of 1994, based on an accurate statistical study and containing an evaluation of the financial implications of all the possible hypotheses;

5.       Instructs its Committee on Rules of Procedure to present at the same time a report on the administrative, technical and structural implications of increasing the number of official languages.

Signed:       Dimmer, Berg, Seitlinger, Schieder, Lentz-Cornette, König, Jacquat, Sarens, Kelchtermans, Büchel, Gassner, Lanner, Schwimmer, Efraimoglou, Gotzev, Ottenbourgh, Hörcsik, Vella, P. Caccia, Schädler, Gottardo