Under Article 22 of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, there is a provision for respect of minority languages used in Europe.
It operates in 14 countries and 12 languages in Western Europe.
The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) will work in collaboration with Oxford University, King's College London, Bangor University and the National Library of Wales on the "archaeological background of the emergence of the Celtic languages in western Europe".
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She grew up in New Jersey, and was studying languages and literature for a masters degree in Europe when she had a chance meeting with a saxophone player in Oxford, England, that changed her life.
After all, it was only three years ago that Mr Chirac came out in favour of endorsing the regional-languages charter adopted by the Council of Europe in 1992.
This time round they have realised that to succeed in Europe, with its many languages, cultures and legal systems, they need a strong local presence, mostly of local staff.
And they pay for Google's Dublin office, where 900 people, proficient in 35 languages, proofread Google ads headed for Europe and the Mideast.
Historically, observes Mr Fischer, it is languages that are replaced, not people: the human genetic profile in Europe has not altered significantly in over 50, 000 years.
EU's 20 official languages. (The cost of translation makes getting a patent in Europe far more expensive than in, say, America.) This would have created broad patent-protection and cut costs for inventors.
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Europe is fragmented not only by multiple languages but also by the lack of a properly common market in services, including digital ones, so tech firms must still overcome assorted legal and bureaucratic barriers to trade across the EU. Digital firms should be able to benefit from the single market just as mobile-phone companies such as Nokia and Vodafone have.
As Catherine Trautmann explained last year, when she was culture minister, it was in France's interest to ratify the Council of Europe's charter that protects regional and minority languages.
Who would doubt that modern languages would be better taught by slumming around Europe for four years than by a few hours a week of instruction in an otherwise unilingual environment?
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