Today the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages has published a follow-up report on Sweden´s implementation of the recommendations for immediate action contained in the Committee of Experts’ eighth evaluation from 2023. This report is based on the information received from the Swedish authorities, as well as from representatives of the minority language speakers.

The Committee of Experts were informed by the Swedish authorities that they have not consulted the representatives of the minority language users when preparing the information on the implementation of the recommendations for immediate action. The Committee of Experts regrets this and reiterates that, in conformity with the Charter, it is necessary to inform the organisations concerned of the recommendations made during the monitoring and to take into consideration the needs and wishes expressed by them in the implementation and related reporting. 

• The Committee of Experts notes that the number of hours dedicated to teaching of and in the minority languages (Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami, and Yiddish) in primary and secondary schools has not been increased and therefore concludes that the recommendation has not yet been implemented.
• The Committee of Experts welcomes that universities will promote teaching in minority languages from preschool to university. However, the fact that there are not sufficient teachers of Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami, Yiddish at each stage of education hampers the provision and continuity of teaching in and of these languages.
• Given that the grounds outlined in the Discrimination Act have not been extended to explicitly cover discrimination based on language, the Committee of Experts concludes that the recommendation has not been implemented.
• The Swedish authorities confirmed that the National Agency of Education could be tasked with collecting data on national minority languages teaching at preschool level, since no such statistics exist at present.
• For municipalities outside the administrative areas, there are no statistics for the use of national minority languages in preschool. The Swedish authorities have taken no steps to increase bilingual education for Finnish, Meänkieli and Sami.
• The Committee of Experts was informed by the representatives of the speakers of Finnish that Swedish public service media are compelled to reduce their staff, including those for the minority languages. According to the representatives of the speakers, this action violates the terms outlined in the Swedish media license agreement for public media (2020-2025). The reductions in staff are disproportionate when compared to general cuts, and there has been a lack of consultation with representatives of the national minorities affected.
• Given that media play an important role in the promotion of minority languages, the Committee of Experts asks the authorities to ensure their stable presence in media platforms, so as to support the use of these languages in public life. The Committee of Experts asks the authorities to report on this development in the next periodical report.

Recommends made as a matter of priority in the eighth evaluation included:

• include language as a ground for discrimination in the Swedish legislation;
• ensure that “mother tongue” education meets the requirements of the Charter and offers adequate language tuition, enabling pupils to achieve mature literacy in the languages concerned;
• increase the amount of bilingual education available in Finnish and Sami, and provide an offer of bilingual education in Meänkieli;
• make available preschool education in, or a substantial part of preschool education in Sami, Finnish, and Meänkieli in all relevant municipalities;
• increase the system of teacher training according to the needs of the speakers and to the situation of each of the minority languages.