The contribution concerns the relationship between the European integration process and the protection of minorities and language rights. It focuses on several official documents produced by the European institutions with political or legal value. In particular it refers to the Council of Europe and the European Communities / European Union. Those institutions are different and in a different way they are at the same time an outcome and an instrument of the European integration. Into this framework the symbolic and substantial relevance given to minorities, linguistics rights and cultural diversity has been changing over the course of time, according to the different political and institutional situations of Europe. The different approaches to minorities, minoritized languages and language rights are like a mirror for the European integration, showing both its strenght and its difficulties as well as its contradictions.
