A coordinated visit to Denmark together with a delegation of the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities took place in June. On 25-28 September, a delegation of the Committee of Experts visited the Czech Republic, followed by on-the-spot visits to Finland and to Croatia, both held  in October. Over the last months, the Committee of Experts published six new reports, on Austria, Serbia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, and adopted the report on Denmark, which will become public shortly. For the beginning of 2024 two visits are scheduled to take place: one to Spain in January and the second to the United Kingdom in February 2024.

A new brochure, released in November, presents an overview of the Charter: the work of its Committee of Experts, the monitoring process and the standards the Charter requires. Also recently released: the updated 3rd edition of the Charter’s collected texts, available in English and French. This publication contains along with the Charter text and its explanatory report, the relevant decisions of the Committee of Ministers and the Rules of Procedure of the Committee of Experts. It further provides the state of signatures and ratifications as well as reservations and declarations. A handy tool for all those looking for a user-friendly compilation of basic texts concerning the Language Charter.

In the second half of 2023, members of the Committee of Experts of the Charter participated in different events organised by external stakeholders. In October, the First Vice-Chair of the COMEX attended the European Language Equality Network General Assembly, in Cagliari, Sardinia, aimed at promoting the ratification of the Charter by Italy. In November, the COMEX was represented at the sixteenth session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva. In the beginning of December, the COMEX Chair participated in an exchange of views with the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI) in Strasbourg, and finally several COMEX members attended the awareness-raising event on ‘The Council of Europe: Enhancing Minority and Linguistic Rights in Scotland’ organised at the University of Glasgow on 13-14 December.

In time for its 25th anniversary, a video on the Charter’s impact has been released. The video showcases specific examples from states parties to the Language Charter of measures put in place in different sectors from private and public life to guarantee speakers of regional or minority languages in these countries can use them on their daily life.