The Academy of the Basque Language forms an Alliance of Academies of minority languages in Europe

The Academy of the Basque Language (1919) is the official body responsible for Basque, that is the Basque language. It carries out research on the language and its object is to safeguard it; the Academy has formulated the rules for the normalisation of the language. The Basque name of this language academy is Euskaltzaindia.

On January 18th, the third Euskaltzaindia centennial academic congress concluded in Iruñea/Pamplona, in which 19 experts discussed the care of minority languages. One of the most mentioned subjects in the congress was the one of a possible alliance between academies that worry about the minority languages in Europe, and that entente took place at noon, with the agreement that the Academy of the Basque Language has presented.

Euskaltzaindia, has promoted an agreement, seconded by different international organizations and institutions, to defend the rights of speakers of minority languages in Europe.

The agreement was seconded by :
- Andrés Urrutia (Euskaltzaindia),
- Cor van der Meer (Fryske Akademy),
- Benoit Dazeas (Lo Congrès Permanent de la Lenga Occitan),
- Henrique Monteagudo (Galician Academy),
- Joan Argenter (Institut d'Estudis Catalans),
- Elena Chiocchetti (EURAC-Institute for Applied Linguistics, South Tyrol).