(ANSA) - STRASBOURG - Montenegro has made some progress in the field of minority languages, but still needs to develop an organised policy to allow full implementation in the country of measures contained in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This assessment is contained in the report on Montenegro made by the Council of Europe's expert group, in charge of monitoring the implementation of the Charter's principles.

The report focuses on measures undertaken to protect and promote Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian and Romani languages.

Experts point out that so far the implementation of the measures provided for in the Charter has been hindered by a "vague" delimitation of the territories where it should be enforced. But now a new law should change the situation, evisaging that an idiom is officially recognized if spoken as a mother tongue by at least 5% of the population in a specific area. The report shows that the most protected language is Albanian, while the Romani language is the less protected and promoted idiom.

(ANSA).