Dear EUD Followers,
We are excited to announce the publication of our latest position paper titled “National Sign Languages as EU Official Languages”.
This position paper calls for the recognition of the 29 national sign languages (NSLs) as EU official languages, alongside the current 24 spoken official languages. It emphasises the EU’s legal obligation to respect linguistic and cultural diversity and to prevent language-based discrimination as part of its multilingualism policy.
Despite existing EU legislation and the EU having ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), deaf people in the EU are still discriminated against in their right to communicate and access information from EU institutions in their national sign language.
The paper provides some key recommendations on the next steps towards the EU recognising its 29 NSLs as EU official languages. This would involve the revision of EU Regulation 1/1958 establishing official EU languages and amending the Rules of Procedure of EU institutions to include NSLs as official and working languages.
These changes will help align the EU with its principles of equality and non-discrimination, reinforcing its identity as a Union of Equality that embraces all linguistic and cultural communities.
EUD will utilise this position paper as a compass when navigating the EU system to achieve our fundamental human rights: our right to use our European languages within the European Union.
Warm regards,
EUD President
Sofia Isari
Executive Summary
