The
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (
ECRML) is a European
treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the
Council of Europe to protect and promote historical
regional and
minority languages in
Europe. The preparation for the charter was undertaken by the predecessor to the current
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe because involvement of local and regional government was essential. The actual charter was written in the
Parliamentary Assembly based on the Congress' Recommendations. It only applies to
languages traditionally used by the nationals of the State Parties (thus excluding languages used by recent
immigrants from other states, see
immigrant languages), which significantly differ from the majority or
official language (thus excluding what the state party wishes to consider as mere local dialects of the official or majority language) and that either have a territorial basis (and are therefore traditionally spoken by populations of regions or areas within the State) or are used by linguistic minorities within the State as a whole (thereby including such languages as
Yiddish and
Romani, which are used over a wide geographic area).