EBLUL announced this week in a press release it is to end its activities. The pan-European non-governmental organisation has been encouraging respect towards lesser protected languages within the European Union for the last quarter century.

The decision to shut down the organization was made by its Board of Directors on January 27. According to the press release, "the organisations which have been registered as independent organisations in their own jurisdictions are free to choose their own course of action for the future". Twenty EU state members were associated to EBLUL. Spain was represented by 3 organisations: A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística for Galician, CIEMEN for Catalan and Aurten Bai Fundazioa for Basque.

According to the Galician online journal Vieiros, one of the main reasons for EBLUL's dissolution could be lack of funding. European institutions, jointly with some EU member states, had been financing EBLUL up to now.

Further information:

• EBLUL: EBLUL Closing Statement
• Vieiros: Pecha a Axencia Europea de Linguas Minorizadas logo de 25 anos de traballo