Campaign to make Luxembourgish an official EU language

(CS) Luxembourg party ADR wants to make Luxembourgish an official EU language, as part of its European elections campaign, while an online petition is calling on the government to make efforts to promote the country's native tongue at the institutions.

The “Alternative Democratic Reform Party” has long advocated the importance of the Luxembourgish language as part of the Grand Duchy's identity, also emphasising its importance as a requirement to gain Luxembourg nationality for foreigners.

As part of its European election campaign, the party pledges to aim to promote Luxembourgish to official EU language status, since it is the only national language not to have this status.

The ADR argues that this would not mean that all official documents would have to be translated into Luxembourgish, as alternative solutions have also been found with smaller languages such as Maltese or Irish.

“Yes to the recognition of Luxembourgish as an official EU language, no to a pointless waste of resources,” a campaign advert says.

The party also states that the current status violates EU regulations, because of a European Parliament resolution stating that all European citizens should be able to communicate with the European institutions in their own language.

A petition has also been filed with the Chamber of Deputies, calling on the government to make efforts for Luxembourgish to become an official EU language. The petition says that the language is an integral part of Luxembourg's identity and independence. While not calling into question the role of French and German in the country's language make-up, the petition wants recognition for Luxembourgish as an official language of the country, also on EU level.

Petition n°363 was filed on May 7 and has until June 21 to garner 4,500 signatures in order to be passed on to parliament for a debate. So far, 351 people have signed.