The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers has made public the fourth report on the situation of regional or minority languages in Hungary.

On the basis of this report, the Council of Europe calls on Hungary to develop a structured long-term policy in the field of minority language protection. In particular, it asks the Hungarian authorities to actively promote the establishment of further bilingual schools at all stages of education and to improve further the financial situation of minority language education.

This report has been drawn up by a committee of independent experts which monitors the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Further to the report, the Committee of Ministers has adopted a series of recommendations addressed to Hungary. These include inter alia the improvement of the offer of minority language programmes on television.

In Hungary, 14 regional or minority languages are protected under the Charter: Armenian, Beás, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Romany, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian.