The Union for Europe Group in the European Parliament, to which Fianna Fail is aligned, will resist efforts by the European Commission to reduce the EU budget for minority languages, according to the Fianna Fail MEP, Mr Pat "the Cope" Gallagher.
The group held a series of meetings in Galway last week, during which French, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Dutch and Irish MEPs debated several European issues, including efforts to safeguard linguistic and cultural minorities.
A report prepared for the group said the draft parliamentary budget for "lesser-used" languages in 1998 contains an allocation of 3.2 million ecus (£2.5 million).
This represents a reduction of about 10 per cent on the 1997 figure and counters several recommendations and reports to the European Parliament in recent years, all of which urged greater financial support for the languages.
About 51 million Europeans speak more than 40 languages described as minority, regional or lesser-used.
They include Breton, Corsican, Catalan, Alsatian and Occitan in France; Lappish in Finland and Sweden; Irish, Welsh and Scots Gaelic; and non-territorial languages such as the Yiddish and gypsy languages.
The Union for Europe group, the third-largest grouping in the European Parliament, will press for an increased allocation for the languages, in line with commitments given in Amsterdam, according to Mr Gallagher.
The Commission is "sending out the wrong signal" in seeking to reduce the budget, he said. "We will be doing our utmost to ensure this is reversed when the budget comes before parliament later in the year."
Mr Gallagher said the EU's future stability depended on finding ways to recognise and support the many ethnic and linguistic minorities within the borders of member-states. "We ignore them at our peril," he said.
The report prepared for the Galway meetings also queried the requirement for promoters of minority languages to submit joint projects from different countries, to avail of EU funding.
"Must Basques and Welsh people really organise joint events in order to prove that projects have a European dimension and to qualify for European support?" it asks.