MERCATOR :: News File

Professor of Administrative Law Antoni Milian has recently published a new book on linguistic rights in Catalan and Spanish legislation, including a more general view on international law. "Drets lingüístics per a tothom" ("Linguistic rights for all") analyzes linguistic provisions in Catalan legislation and proposes ways to enhance linguistic rights in Catalan laws, with a special regard to migrants' linguistic integration. The book also sums up Milian's thought on linguistic rights. The professor defends a double approach on linguistic rights, as both individual and collective rights. The book has been published by Lleonard Muntaner House in Palma (Mallorca, Balearic Islands).

The mayor of Vilanòva de Magalona, determined to appeal against a decision forbidding Occitan signposts

The village council of Vilanòva de Magalona (Villeneuve-Les-Maguelone in French, a town located at the Occitan-speaking department of Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon) does not intend to cease using Occitan as the council’s own language despite the decision issued by a court in Montpellier compelling to withdraw or rewrite the road signs at the entrance to the municipality. The court said Robert Hadjadj, a neighbour arguing bilingual signposts are open to misinterpretation, is right. Hadjadj had declared the road post in Occitan had a grave accent on the letter O, a symbol that does not exist in French. The mayor of Vilanòva de Magalona Noël Ségura has stated he won’t have the road signs withdrawn and that he might appeal against the decision: "People speak Occitan here. It is taught in school and the institute", he pointed out. Ségura also said the decision is inconsistent with the resolution made by the neighbouring department of Aveyron, which promotes signposting in both French and Occitan. Now the court reminds that the traffic law establishes French as "the language of the Republic" and that any inscription in public ways must be in this language.

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The mayor of Vilanòva de Magalona, determined to appeal against a decision forbidding Occitan signposts

Sint Maarten becomes nearly independent with Dutch and English as official languages

Caribbean island of Sint Maarten became nearly independent on October 10th after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, which this island, plus Curaçao, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustasius, belonged to. Sint Maarten passed a Constitution on July that recognizes Dutch and English as the two official languages of the island. An English-based creole is widely used there.

Sint Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They are almost independent, but defense and international relations still depend on the Government of the Netherlands.

Curaçao has not declared any official language in its new Constitution, but the island's Government is now using Dutch and Papiamentu for official purposes.

Related links...
Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten sever ties with the Netherlands

New blog on Arpitan (Francoprovençal) language

Some language enthusiasts in Catalonia have recently created "Amics d'Arpitània" ("Friends of Arpitania"), a blog devoted to Arpitan (Francoprovençal) language. Arpitan is spoken by some 200,000 people, mainly in Savoy (France), Aosta Valley (Italy) and the Romandy cantons (Switzerland).

This blog aims to disseminate information of this widely ignored language. It includes weekly updates. It can be read in Catalan on http://amicsdarpitania.blogspot.com/.

Related links...
"Amics d'Arpitània" blog

Occitan is officially declared the ''preferred'' language of Catalonia's Aran Valley

The Catalan Parliament declared Occitan the "preferred" language of Aran Valley, the northwesternmost area of Catalonia. This was passed by an overall majority (almost 90%) of Catalan lawmakers on September 22nd, within the frame of the new Law on Occitan, Aranese in Aran. The act strengthens the cooficial consideration of Occitan, alongside Catalan and Spanish, in Aran Valley.

Pursuant to the law, Occitan must be the "normal lingua franca" in Aranese education centres. Furthermore, the language must be promoted in public radio and television programmes. It also establishes that Occitan placenames are the only ones with official consideration in Aran Valley.

The 2006 Statute of Catalonia already stated that Occitan was an official language in Catalonia, although it was not specific about the scope of this consideration.

Catalonia is the only territory where Occitan has official status. According to a 2001 official census, Occitan was spoken by 4,700 people in Aran Valley. 6,700 people could understand the language.

Related links...
ACN: Aranese language becomes the 3rd co-official language in Catalonia
MónDivers: L’occità, "llengua preferent" d’Aran

The Government of Euskadi cuts grants to Seaska 'ikastola' system in Northern Basque Country

The Spanish Socialist-led Government of Euskadi has decided to grant 400,000 euros per year (only until 2012) to the Seaska Basque language schools (ikastolak, in Basque) in Northern Basque Country (France). This figure is down from more than 1 million euros that were granted by the former Government of Euskadi, which was led by the Basque Nationalist Party.

Besides, the grants will only be paid if "there is money remaining" in the Euskadi budget at the end of the year. The decision has led to criticism by pro-independence party Eusko Alkartasuna, which considers that "the Government's commitment with Basque language cannot expire" in 2012. But Spanish conservative Popular Party has also criticised the step: they wanted the grants to be cut to zero euros.

More pupils to study in Catalan in the Valencian Country and Andorra

Pupils set to study in Catalan in the Valencian Country and Andorra in 2010-2011 will be more than in the previous accademic year, according to data released yesterday. In Andorra, the Andorran School (one of the three education systems there) is the choice for 4.341 pupils. Altogether, 57% of Andorran pupils will have Catalan as their lingua franca at school (an increase of 2% in comparison to 2009-2010).

Likewise, 222.236 pupils will study in Catalan in the Valencian Country, which accounts for 29% of the total figure. Last accademic year, the propotion was 27,4%.

Cymdeithas protests against the Welsh language bill

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) has expressed criticism against the Welsh language bill, the "Welsh Language Measure", which has been recently disclosed. According to Cymdeithas, the Language Commissioner (who is set to substitute the present Welsh Language Board) will have too little independence from the Government. The association states that the Commissioner will hold a position with "no status" and "no rights".

Related links...
Nationalia: Cymdeithas protesta pel projecte de llei de la llengua gal·lesa

The Real Academia Galega and A Mesa appeal against decree on multilingualism

The Real Academia Galega (RAG) and A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística, two main cultural organisations in Galicia, have said that they will appeal against the decree on multilingualism and Galician language. This decree was passed by the Galician Goverment (led by the Spanish conservative Alberto Núñez Feijóo) and it regulates the use of Galician in schools.

RAG maintains that "the law does not protect the rights of many Galician people, but in fact it cuts them". A Mesa quotes some reports by Galician universities, according to which the decree could imply an "irreparable damage" in Galician students' education.

Related links...
Nationalia: La Real Academia Galega i A Mesa recorren el decret del plurilingüisme

Severe blow for Catalan in the ruling of the Spanish Constitutional Court on the Statute of Catalonia

The Spanish Constitutional Court finally issued the decision on the Statute of Catalonia after 4 years of deliberation. The Statute was approved by the Catalan Parliament on 30 September 2005, the Spanish Congress on March 2006 and ratified by a majority vote in a referendum.

The ruling has dealt language a severe blow as judges abolished preferential status for Catalan in the administration and public mass media. Other language-related aspects, such as the "right of citizens to address constitutional bodies and the Spanish judiciary in Catalan" or the right of citizens to be responded, as consumers or users, in any of the official languages -Catalan, Occitan and Castilian-, will be subject to interpretation.

Related links...
Nationalia: Spanish Constitutional Court cuts back Catalan Statute of Autonomy

Sorbian language faces extinction due to lack of teachers

The Sorbian community is on the alert because their language -Europe's westernmost Slavic language- lacks skilled teachers for immersion programmes. Ten years after the launching of the Witaj (Welcome) programmes in nursery schools, based on Danish immersion programmes in Northern Germany, nursery schools in Lusatia (Sorbian territories in the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg) need experienced teachers in Sorbian. The Witaj programmes are also facing funding cuts from the Government.

As Deutsche Welle online journal informs, education institutions from all over the Lusatian territory say the situation is a distressing one, particularly in the state of Brandenburg, where teachers have to learn the language themselves before instructing children in Sorbian.

Ensuring the''survival and transmission of Catalan language'' is a goal for Perpinyà

Perpinyà (Perpignan, in French) has passed the Municipal Charter for the Catalan Language, a text that "officially" recognises Catalan as the "historic language of the Town". The Charter also aims to grant linguistic rights to Catalan speakers, within the scope of the local administration powers. First aim is to "ensure the survival and transmission of the Catalan language", so that the "trend of losing Catalan speakers" is reversed.

The Charter also has the goal of giving citizens of Perpinyà the right to use Catalan, having Catalan in "public and social life" in town and "contributing to newcomers' integration and participation into social cohesion and economic development of the country through respecting the Catalan cultural and linguistic personality".

Galician civic organizations to appeal against decree on multilingualism

The publication of the Decree 79/2010 on Multilingualism in non-university education triggered an adverse reaction among Galician civil society. Both A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística and the trade union Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG-Ensino) announced they are to submit an administrative appeal against the decree at the Galician High Court of Justice.

The president of A Mesa, Carlos Callón, said the appeal seeks to avoid the exclusion of Galician in any subject and to assure a minimum of hours in Galician in preschool education.

Spokespersons of CIG -the largest trade union in Galicia's education sector- deemed the decree as the "greatest blow" to Galician language. They further added it "disdains the work done by teachers and their pedagogic discernment".

Related links...
Nationalia: Galician civic organizations to appeal against decree on multilingualism

Scottish Gaelic used first time ever in the European Council

Scottish Gaelic has made this week and historic and symbolic step towards its recognition. The minister for education of the Scottish government, Mike Russell, adressed the Council of ministers of education and culture in that language, spoken by around 66,000 people in western Scotland and the islands.

Likewise Catalan, Basque, Galician and Welsh, Scottish Gaelic does not have official status in the European Union but is granted some degree of recognition. Citizens are entitled to address the European Council and be responded in these languages. However, the Catalan organization Horitzó Europa warned a few days ago that European institutions "ignore Catalan", despite it's been 5 years since first agreements allowing the use non-state languages were signed.

Related links...
Nationalia: Scottish Gaelic used first time ever in the European Council

Thousands call again for official status for Asturian

Thousands of people marched the streets of Oviedo (Asturias) to call for official status for Asturian language. The demonstration was called by the Xunta pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana and it was supported by some unions, associations and political parties (but not by the two main ones: Spanish conservatives PP and Spanish socialists PSOE).

Demonstrators pledged for the oficialisation of Asturian to be included in the upcoming reform of the Asturian Statute of Autonomy. This reform, nevertheless, needs the support from both PSOE and PP. None of them is determined to make Asturian official.

Irish civil organizations come together to launch a Gaelic medium school

The small town of Ráth Tó, in the Republic of Ireland, is witnessing a civil disobedience action carried away by several organizations in favour of Irish language. They have disregarded the decision by the Department of Education of denying the permission to open an Irish medium primary school ('gaelscoil'). The organizations, which have come together under the name Aitheantas (Irish for 'Recognition'), declare that the Irish administration does not figure in linguistic needs for giving a green light to new schools. As a result they are proceeding with the opening of the school in September despite the official veto.

Aitheantas has launched a campaign to raise money for the school, and is ready to lobby the Department of Education with the backing of several local councilors. The organisations hope that the administration will finally recognize the school, but won’t wait for the approval to launch it.

Related links...
Nationalia: Irish civil organizations come together to launch a Gaelic medium school

Corsican Government unveils plan to promote Corsican language among civil servants

The Corsican Government has passed a document that aims to "strengthen the use and visibility of the Corsican language in social life and in public space". This implies an important commitment with Corsican by a State body. Within this framework, Corsican language courses will be offered to civil servants, especially to those working in the education system. The plan will also include Corsican signs in National Centre for Territorial Public Service (CNFPT, in French) offices.

Related links...
Nationalia: Corsican Government unveils plan to promote Corsican language among civil servants

Scottish Government unveils plan to promote Gaelic

Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the main public body for the promotion and development of Gaelic in Scotland, has just published Ginealach Ùr na Gàidhlig, a new scheme to uphold the Celtic language. According to the Scottish government, the measures aim at "creating a new generation of Gaelic speakers". The reason behind it is that, although progress has been made in securing legal recognition of the language, "there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of Gaelic speakers".

One of the main initiatives included in the plan seeks to increase the number of Gaelic-medium schools. Besides, Ginealach Ùr na Gàidhlig will "make Gaelic more accessible to adults and children wishing to learn the language and use it in everyday life".

Scottish Gaelic was officially granted official status in 2005 with the approval of the Gaelic Language Act.

Related links...
Nationalia: Scottish Government unveils plan to promote Gaelic

Dismantling policies against Galician language denounced in Brussels

The umbrella organization Queremos Galego, made up of hundreds of associations, institutions and groups from the Galician civil society have travelled to Brussels to denounce Galician president Alberto Núñez Feijóo's language policies, in power since April 2009. Queremos Galego, which promoted a crowded demonstration in favour of Galician language last October, believes the Xunta (Galician government) is implementing active and aggressive policies to "dismantle" the language normalization process.

The organization visited the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the UNESCO headquarters. Their officials also met with members of the European Parliament belonging to minoritised communities such as Oriol Junqueras (ERC, Catalan Countries), and the Intergroup for Traditional National Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages. The initiative has been led by Carlos Callón, president of A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística (Bureau for linguistic normalisation); Anxo Louzao, national secretary of the trade union CIG (Education section); Bieito Lobeira, member of the Galician parliament for BNG (Galician Nationalist Bloc) and the actress Isabel Risco.

According to Queremos Galego, Feijóo's government violates the Galician Language Normalization Act and the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages. Representatives of the umbrella organization handed out to officials from the Council of Europe a document pointing at the most flagrant infringements of the Charter.

Related links...
Nationalia: Dismantling policies against Galician language denounced in Brussels

300 mayors and local councilors in Szeklerland call for official status for Hungarian language in Romania

Székely people, the main Hungarian group within the Romanian provinces of Harghita, Covasna and Mures, have demanded once more the central government to take steps to grant self-government for their territory and official status for their language. Around 300 Székely mayors and local councilors -most of them members of the Hungarian Civic Party- held on March 12 a symbolic event in which Hungarian was given official status and put on an equal footing with Romanian. A proposal to present the Romanian Parliament an autonomy plan was also agreed upon. They will ask the European Parliament to appoint an special envoy to watch over the issue and decided to declare March 15, the Hungarian National Day, bank holiday in the Székely territories.

Spanish Constitutional Court recognizes the right of citizens to address the autonomous government in Asturian

Asturian people have the right to address the public administration of the Principality of Asturias in Asturian, the country's own language. That is what the Spanish Constitutional Court (SCC) has granted after rejecting a judicial review against the Act of Use and Promotion of Asturian, the main regulation protecting this Romance language. Prior to that a court from Oviedo had questioned the constitutionality of the law before the SCC after an Asturian lawyer, Xurde Blanco, lodged an appeal against a decision which invalidated his application for a work permit because it was filled up in Asturian language.

Welsh government publishes Language law

The Government of Wales has published the Language bill, a long expected legislation to regulate the public use of the language of the strongest Celtic family. Until now, it was Westminster who had the power to do so.

The proposed bill would entitle the Senedd (Welsh Assembly) to pass legislation on linguistic matters. One of the first effects will be the replacement of the Welsh Language Board by a commissioner for the language, who will work to promote the use of Welsh. Other measures to be implemented are the obligation of public agencies and private companies (in certain areas: gas distribution, water and electricity, bus and train services, sewerage and telecommunications) to offer their services in Welsh. They risk to receive a penalty if they do not do so.

Related links...
Nationalia: El Govern de Gal·les publica la proposta de llei de llengües

Use of Catalan language in Andorra mixes progresses and setbacks

The fourth survey on Language use and knowledge of the Andorran population, made last year and presented last week by the Sociological Research Centre (CRES), shows the unequal power that the country's own language has, depending on the area of use. In general, the use of Catalan at home went down, whereas the language is gaining ground in more formal areas.
One of the most negative news for Catalan is that in 2009 it is mother tongue for a mere 28.9% Andorrans, while in 1995 the language was still dominant with 42.7% of residents who claimed that Catalan was their mother tongue.

On the contrary, Catalan is showing more strength in administrative uses, since it is the only official language of the Principality. 70% of residents state that they only use Catalan for official purposes, six points ahed if compared to 2004. At banking, consultancy or agency, the number of those who declare that they only use Catalan rises to 69.6%, three points ahead when compared to 2004.

Related links...
MónDivers: Avenços i reculades per al català a Andorra
Nationalia: Andorra estudia la inclusió del portuguès a l'escola

75% of families choose Basque medium school in Euskadi

An overall majority of families have chosen teraching through the medium of Basque in the process of pre-enrolling in primary school. Only 4% of parents have chosen inscription for their children in Spanish language medium schools (the so-called "A model").

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Nationalia: 75% of families choose Basque medium school in Euskadi

Wales ready to be transferred powers on language issues

Wales is getting ready to regulate on linguistic affairs soon. According to BBC, the Welsh Assembly will be allowed to promote its own language policies and the rights of Welsh-speakers -between 510.000 and 600.000, in accordance with Linguamon data- from February 10 onwards. The coalition government, made up of Labour Party and pro-independence Plaid Cymru, has announced it is to propose the first legislative package on March 1, Saint David day, the country's patron saint.

The first bill will establish the appointment of a Commissioner for the Welsh language, who will watch over the use of Welsh on a daily basis. One of the most important tasks of the commissioner will be to ensure the use of Welsh in the public administration and certain private sectors such as transport and services. It is even given the legal authority to fine companies that doesn't meet the minimum standards, BBC reports.

Deputy first minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said the measure aims at granting "more rights" to Welsh-speakers, particularly in the service sector, and give "the regulatory body more powers and relevant sanctions to guarantee that what is being promised is being delivered".

Related links...
Nationalia: Wales ready to be transferred powers on language issues
BBC: Language law powers to move to Wales 'from next week'

Official status for Catalan in the EU is a must, Catalan government says

Catalan Vice-President Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira said in a speech before general directors and secretaries of the 27 member states of the European Union that Europe "must acknowledge its real and deep inner diversity", and added that a first step, which cannot be postponed, would be "to grant official status for languages as unquestionably strong as Catalan, a language used by 10 million European people on a daily basis". Carod-Rovira intervened at a dinner offered by the Catalan government in Barcelona on the occasion of the Spanish EU presidency.

Carod-Rovira called for the official status of the Catalan language to be granted, a status from which it has been excluded mostly due to the Spanish government's lack of political will. The Vice-President of Catalonia stressed the historical "pro-European" spirit of Catalonia, a "responsible nation in the context of European nations which seeks to play its own role and take its own responsibilities in the European-building process.

Current official languages in the European Union include only those languages with official status in the whole territory of state members. Catalan, as other languages in Spain, is officially recognized only in the autonomous communities where it is spoken, and therefore has not yet achieved the status it should have in Europe,

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Nationalia: Official status for Catalan in the EU is a must, Catalan government says

Aragonese and Catalan languages recognised by the assembly of Aragon

The Languages Act has finally become a reality. The Aragonese Assembly voted in favour of a legislation that, in spite of establishing Spanish as the only official language, mentions the two minoritised languages spoken in the community ?Aragonese and Catalan?for the first time ever. The wording of the act states that both languages are "community's own, original and historical languages which must be preserved", and acknowledges the right of the citizens living in the territories where they are spoken to address the administration in their language and the right to study them.

The law binds the institutions to "promote a knowledge on Aragonese linguistic reality" and foresees the creation of a Aragonese Supreme Council of Languages, which will advise the government on language issues. The Council will consist of 15 members from different areas such as education, literature and law.

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Nationalia: Aragonese and Catalan languages recognised by the assembly of Aragon

Cornish to be used on road and street signs

Small but important win for Cornish, the own language of Cornwall. The Council of Cornwall has decided to make street and road signs both in English and Cornish. They are solely in English now. But Cornish will not be used on highways, anyway. In addition, it has been said that Cornish will only be used in new signs, so that there are not extra costs.

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Nationalia: Cornish to be used on road and street signs

Basque is swept away as medium language in schools

Basque, the Basque Country's own language, has ceased to be the main teaching language in the schools of the autonomous community after the executive led by Patxi Lopez (PSE-PSOE, Basque Labour) amended several decrees on education which were approved during previous government's last term in office. This is only one of the changes the curriculum will undergo in the context of an in-depth remodeling promoted by the Basque Ministry of Education Isabel Celaá, who defended the modification of contents that "made the school an instrument of nationalist indoctrination and exclusion of pluralism".

Amendments affect primary, secondary and high school education, and will have to be discussed by the Basque education community (Basque School Council) and then approved by the executive. According to the amended decrees -which will come into force next academic year- Castilian and Basque languages will stand on equal footing. As the administration will establish no priority regarding language, it seems that the choice will rest on schools and institutes' decision. The Basque government believes that the measure will lead to "equal bilingualism" and will help to rebuild social consensus, since 80 % of the population has Castilian as main language. Celaá also said that the changes will not have an effect on model D schools (schools in which the primary medium of instruction is Basque, with Spanish taught as a subject) because of the schools and institutes' freedom of choice.

Related links...
Nationalia: Basque is swept away as medium language in schools

More than 20,000 people demonstrate in Carcassonne in favour of Occitan

'Occitan lenga oficiala' (Occitan, official language), 'Libertat per la lenga, per el pais!' (Freedom for the language and the country) and 'L'occitan a l'escola' (Occitan in schools) have been some of the most common slogans in the rally in favour of Occitan, which was attended by thousands of people -20,000, 14,000 and 25,000 according to the organizers, the police and several media- in Carcassone.

The demonstration focused on 4 aspects: media -the creation of public radio and TV in Occitan and funding of private initiatives-, culture -support for cultural products in Occitan-, education -language immersion or bilingualism on equal terms-, and public life -presence of the language in public spaces, place names and social life.

Demonstrators reminded that the Constitution was amended in July 2008 to include a reference to the so-called "regional languages" in France -Article 75.1 now establishes that "regional languages are part of France's heritage-, and that the Government has not taken any steps to protect them yet.

Nationalia

Rally to protect Galician language records top attendance

Thousands of people demonstrated in Galicia last Sunday to call for the "right to live in Galician" and to ask the executive to "set arrogance and anti-Galician policies aside". The march was organized by Queremos Galego, a platform made up of 500 organisations from across the country and promoted by Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística (Board for Linguistic Normalisation). The march was attended by 100,000 people -50,000 according to Santiago's local police-, which makes it one of the most crowded demonstrations in Galicia's recent history.

People from a wide range of political leanings were present. The two parties in opposition -PSG-PSOE (Spanish labour) and BNG (leftist pro-sovereignty Galician nationalists)- demonstrated together with other minority parties such as Esquerda Galega (Galician Left) and Terra Galega (center-right Galician nationalists). They all expressed their opposition to the language policies implemented by the new PP (Partido Popular, Spanish conservatives) government led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Demonstrators demanded the government to "rejoin consensus" as regards Galician language affairs and censured the areas where the language is still very weak, namely education and public administration.Nationalia

Catalan and Aragonese Language bill goes ahead in the Parliament of Aragón

The Parliament of Aragón has recently accepted to debate on a proposed Language bill that could officially recognise Catalan and Aragonese for the first time ever in that region. The bill, proposed by the Socialist Party (PSOE), gives some limited recognition to Catalan and Aragonese as "historic languages" of Aragón, but it does not make them official.

The Spanish conservatives (PP) and the Aragonese regionalists (PAR) reject the bill. The former say that there are more important questions to think about, while the latter strongly oppose the name "Catalan" for the language spoken in Eastern Aragón -or Franja de Ponent, as it is called in Catalonia.

On the other side, the Aragonese nationalists (CHA) are in favour of the bill. What's more, they have always asked the regional government to make Catalan and Aragonese fully official, besides Spanish.

The Russian Supreme Court compels Tatarstan to increase the visibility of the Russian Language

The Russian Supreme Court has recently warned off the Tatar parliament over language legislation. Moscow argued there was a contradiction between the act passed by Tatarstan and that of the Federation, and therefore has forced Tatarstan to change it. From now on, Russian will be, alongside Tatar, the language of official documentation in Tatarstan's state bodies, public announcements, posters, public advertisements and ballot papers.

The ruling has stirred protests among Tatar language activists, who have accused the Kremlin for "pursuing a policy directed at assimilating the country's many ethnic minorities".Nationalia

HRW asks Morocco to lift restrictions on Amazigh names

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked Moroccan authorities to stop preventing parents from registering the names of their offspring in Amazigh. According to HRW, "numerous Moroccans around the kingdom and abroad who chose Amazigh first names for their newborns have been refused when they applied at local civil registrars". The rights group argues that banning Amazigh names goes against Moroccan laws, which ask parent to choose names with a "Moroccan character". Obviously, Amazigh names are of pure "Moroccan character", given that the Amazigh language has been spoken continuously in Northern Africa since ancient times. Furthermore, HRW considers that restrictions on Amazigh names is in contradiction with the "steps that Morocco has taken to recognize Amazigh cultural rights" in the last years. One example was the creation of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture in 2001.

Related links...
Morocco: Lift Restrictions on Amazigh (Berber) Names

Hungarians from Slovakia rally against new language law

The controversial State Language Act has finally come into force, September 1st, despite the protests of the Hungarian community and the worsening of relations between Bratislava and Budapest. Thousands of Hungarians from Slovakia gathered at the football stadium of Dunaszerdahely, a southwestern town with Hungarian majority, while several members of the European parliament demonstrated at the Slovakian embassy in Brussels.

The law regulates the use and the public presence of the Slovak language in institutions and public domains. The most contentious aspect refers to the obligation of using Slovak in hospitals, schools and State offices, and the €5,000 fine for those civil servants breaking the law.

The Hungarian community, who makes up 10% of Slovakia's population, regards the law as a bid to eradicate its culture. The demonstration was organized by the largest Hungarian party in the country, the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK), and a number of non-governmental organisations.

Nationalia

Related links...
Nationalia: Hungarians from Slovakia rally against new language law
EBLUL: Anger as Slovak language law comes into force

The Assembly of Corsica rejects a plan to make Corsican an official language of the island

Members of the Assembly of Corsica have rejected a proposal by Corsica Nazione Indipendente (CNI) to make Corsican an official language of the island, alongside French. 28 out of 51 MPs voted against the plan, which would have turned Corsica into the first territory of the French Republic with two official languages. Some MPs, like Madeleine Mozziconacci (Corsica in the Republic party), have argued that Corsican cannot be made official because the number of speakers of that language is not increasing. Antoine Giorgi, MP for the UMP party, has stated that making Corsican official could be understood as a rejection of the French language. CNI representatives consider unfair that the Corsican language is not as protected as French, especially bearing in mind that Corsican is the original language of the island.

Hungarians protest a controversial amendment to the Slovak State Language Act

Members of the Hungarian-speaking community in Slovakia consider that a new amendment to the Slovak State Language Act further discriminate them and their culture. The amendment was passed by the National Council of the Slovak Republic on June 30th. The amendment will impose fines over a bad use of the Slovak language from September and will enhance the position of that language by requiring it in all non-private communications.

The Party of the Hungarian Coalition (largest Magyar party in Slovakia) has reacted against the new amendment, which was approved by 76 out of 150 Slovak MPs. The party considers that the change will make it difficult for national minorities to protect their own languages. According to the amendment, minority languages will continue to have their place in health and social services, but in public events, the use of Slovak will be mandatory -although using also another language will be allowed.

Fines for breaking these rules will amount up to 5.000 euros.

According to the 2001 census, 10,7% of the Slovak population uses Hungarian as mother tongue. Almost 2% use Roma, followed by Ruthenian (1%) and Czech (0,9%).

Swedish officially ''main language'' of Sweden, five minority languages and one sign language recognized

Swedish has become for the first time officially recognized as the "main language" of Sweden, since a new law has been passed by the Swedish Parliament. The law also recognizes five minority languages -Meänkieli, Finnish, Sami, Yiddish and Romani- and one sign language -Swedish Sign Language.

The law was adopted in May and has entered into force in July 1st. It states that Swedish is the "common language" of Swedish society. Every resident in Sweden should have access to it, the text says. "In the international context", Swedish is "Sweden's official language", according to the new law. The newly adopted act recognizes Meänkieli, Finnish, Sami, Yiddish and Romani as "the national minority languages" of Sweden, and requires the State to "protect and promote" them. Those languages had been already recognized by Sweden in the frame of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Related links...
Full text of the law, in Swedish
The Local: Swedish becomes official 'main language'

New Education Act consolidates Catalan as main teaching language in schools

The Catalan Parliament has approved a new Education Law that consolidates the use of Catalan as the main teaching language in Catalonia's education system, both in primary and secondary education. The three main parties in Parliament (Convergence and Union, the Socialist Party and Republican Left of Catalonia), agreed to pass the act, which establishes that all educative activities and classroom lessons must be conducted in Catalan. Books used in class must be also written in that language. Only Spanish Language and its Literature and Foreign Language subjects shall not be conducted in Catalan.

The law further strengthens the current educative system, which was first implemented in Catalonia in the 1980's. The text specifically bans the segregation of pupils in different classrooms according to their "usual language". It means that not only Catalan-speaking pupils, but also those who have Spanish or other languages as mother tongues, will receive tuition in Catalan.

According to the law, in the Pyrenees' Aran Valley, where a variety of Occitan (Aranese) is used, Aranese will be the main teaching language in schools. Catalan, Spanish and a foreign language must be also taught as subjects.

Related links...
Full text of the law, in Catalan

Kalaallisut becomes the only official language in Greenland

Greenland is officially a self-governed territory with the right to self-determination from June 21st. After 300 years under Danish rule and a limited autonomy since 1979, a new statute came into force on the Greenlandic National Day, which devolves most of powers to the Artic island, recognizes to Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) the status of the island's only official language and establishes the right of the Greenlandic people to freely attain full independence.

Prior to this new statute, Kalaallisut -spoken by some 50,000 Greenlanders- shared the position of Greenland's official language with Danish. Kalaallisut belongs to the Inuit group of the Eskimo-Aleut languages, spoken troughout the polar regions of North America. It is closely related to Inuktitut (one of the official languages in Canada's Nunavut territory).

Nationalia

Related links...
New Act on Greenland Self-government

New master's degree includes study of Luxembourgish language

The University of Luxembourg has announced that from September onwards, it will be offering a new master's degree in Luxembourgish language and literature. According to the University, it will be the first time Luxembourgish will be studied in a university course.

During the course, linguistic structures of Luxembourgish will be analysed, as will be its "cohabitation with other languages in the [Luxembourgian] multilingual context", says the University.

The languages of the classes will be Luxembourgish (50%) and French and German (50%).

Luxembourgish is one of the three officially recognised languages in Luxembourg, and the only one to have been declared "national". The majority of the population in the Grand Duchy is able to speak it.

Related links...
University of Luxembourg: new course on Luxembourgish language and literature

Public Scottish enterprise adopts its first plan to promote the use of Gaelic

Highlands and Islands' Enterprise (HIE), the Scottish Government’s economic and community development agency for that region, has recently adopted its first Gaelic Plan, the firm has announced on its website. The plan covers the period from 2009 to 2012 and tries to "ensure that the agency exercises its functions in a manner consistent with the spirit of the [Gaelic Language] Act" of 2005.

According to HIE, the plan will be "ambitious but pragmatic". It intends to "normalise Gaelic as an element of daily working life in HIE offices". The agency commits itself to "give priority to the delivery of services in Gaelic and developing capacity in Gaelic skills towards enabling staff to deliver these services on a basis of equity with English".

HIE was established to foster the economic growth of the Scottish Highlands and islands.

Related links...
Highlands and Islands' Enterprise Gaelic Plan
STV: New Gaelic strategy for the Highlands and Islands

Kosovo discriminating languages of smaller minorities - OSCE and rights group

Minority Rights Group (MRG) has accused Kosovo, independent since February 2008, of lack of commitment in protecting minority communities within its borders through a severe report which has been issued today.

According to the international organisation, the most affected groups are the Bosniaks, Askali, Croats, Egyptians, Gorani, Roma, Serbs and Turks. The report, entitled Filling the Vacuum: Ensuring Protection and Legal Remedies for Minorities in Kosovo, regards restriction of movements, political, social and economic exclusion, lack of access to information and to tertiary education in their own language as the main problems suffered by minority communities. As reported by MRG, "this, combined with tough economic conditions, means that some members of minority communities, including Bosniaks and Turks, are starting to leave the new Kosovo altogether".

Some weeks earlier, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had released a report that slammed the Kosovar policy in regards to minority education. According to OSCE, "students belonging to smaller communities continue to enjoy lower opportunities to maintain, develop and foster knowledge of their culture and identity. In this respect, subjects on the language, history, art and music of the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, Gorani, Kosovo Croat, and Kosovo Montenegrin communities are not available", although Kosovar laws entitle "students belonging to these communities to receive pre-school, primary, and secondary public education in their mother tongue".

Nationalia and MónDivers

Italian Constitutional Court: some articles of the Friulian language Law are ''illegitimate''

The Italian Constitutional Court declared that six articles contained in the regional law n. 29 of 17th December 2007 on the protection, enhancement and promotion of the Friulian language are "constitutionally illegitimate". The judges of the Court have largely accepted the issues raised by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2008. The Cabinet considered that the law "exceeds, in many respects, the legislative power devolved to the Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia by the 3rd Article of its Special Statute", which provides for the protection of linguistic minorities in the region.

One of the "illegitimate" articles allowed the municipalities to adopt official names in Friulian only (without an Italian version). Another one provided for the teaching of Friulian for at least one hour per week to every pupil, except for those whose parents explicitly asked not to be taught that language.

Generally speaking, the ruling has invalidated most of the articles that provided further protection for the Friulian language.

Related links...
Lenghe.net: La Cort e boce la Leç sul furlan
Diritto Oggi: Consulta: bocciata legge regionale su uso linua friulana

Crimean Tatars call for linguistic rights to be respected in the 65th anniversary of their deportation

Massive deportation of Tatars on 18th May 1944 has been commemorated once again in Crimea. The date marks the date in wich Joseph Stalin ordered the forced displacement of the whole Tatar population of Crimea -nearly 200,000- to Central Asia. It is estimated that half of the total deportees lost their life along the journey.

According to RFE/RL, around 15,000 people took to the streets of Simferopol (Crimea) to commemorate the catastrophe and demand the Ukranian government to protect their linguistic and political rights. Tatars returning to their ancestral homes since the late 1980's have become a minority due to russification and ukrainization of their territory. That is why demonstrators requested Kiev to recognise official status to the Tatar language within the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and include it within the Republic's education schemes. On a political level, Crimean Tatars call for a national and territorial Tatar self-government outgoing the Autonomous Republic's current powers.

Tatar diaspora World Congress

Not all Crimean Tatars returned to their homeland, as many of them exiled to European and American countries. With the aim of discussing strategies and future goals, the Crimean Tatar World Congress has been held in Bakhchisaray (Crimea) and other Crimean towns.

Nationalia

Related links...
RFE/RL: Crimean Tatars demand languages rights on deportation anniversary

Linguist warns that some languages in Nigeria face extinction threat

Linguist Ohiomamhe Elugbe from the University of Ibadan has warned that some languages in Nigeria may face extinction since parents do not pass the languages to their children. Elugbe has put his mother tongue, ghotuo, as an example of this. According to him, Ghotuo children are being taught through the medium of English and their parents do not teach them their language. "The small size of Ghotuo speakers is shrinking further", says Elugbe.

Elugbe considers that, unlike many small languages, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo are not at risk. He recalls that those languages are spoken by millions of Nigerians, and are even finding their way into computers, but that is not the case for the majority of the 400-500 languages spoken in Nigeria.

Daily Trust

Petition of online signatures to seek official status for Tatar language in Russia

Several organizations representing the Tatar people, the second largest community after majority Russians, have launched a campaign to seek from Moscow greater recognition for their language and respect for the sovereignty of the federated Republic of Tatarstan. According to RFE/RL, an organization called Uzebez (Ourselves) and the Youth Tatar Forum have launched an online petition to have the Duma, the Russian federal parliament, declare Tatar as the second official language in the Federation. The organizations claim that theirs is the second most spoken language in Russia, and take the case of the recognition of Swedish language in Finland as an example.

Paul Goble, a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia, indicates in his blog that the campaign is not only aimed at getting language recognition from the State, but also reversing "recent cutbacks in Tatar language use outside of the Republic of Tatarstan" -since the language is only recognized within the republic. Goble says that the online petition will both raise national awareness among Tatars all across Russia and challenge Moscow's policies on education.

According to RFE/RL, another organization, the Azatliq Tatar Youth Union, has criticized the pressure from Moscow on the sovereignty of the Republic of Tatarstan, the only territory where the Tatar community is in the majority.

Nationalia

Efforts to revive a dead Aboriginal language in Australia

Chifley College in Sydney is leading a project aimed to revive a lost Aboriginal language in New South Wales state (southeastern Australia). The college is teaching Dharug language both to indigenous and non-indigenous people, hoping that it will be brought again to life. It seems that inicial efforts are succeeding, as some students are already beginning to use some Dharug words and sentences in their everyday life.

Dharug was the main spoken language in Sydney region before the British colonists arrived there in late 18th century. The language was probably lost one century later. It is thanks to written records that linguists can revive it today. The revitalisation process for Aboriginal languages requires some "language engineering", that is, borrowing words (or creating new ones) for modern concepts.

BBC and Voice of America

In Canada's Nunavut, Inuit school system is still grounded

Canada's autonomous territory of Nunavut, inhabited mainly by autochthonous Inuits, celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 1st. Despite promises made by Canadian politicians, the local language (Inuktitut) is still missing from Nunavut school system, English having a central place instead. As former policy advisor Derek Rasmussen writes, 75 per cent of Nunavut's population speaks Inuktitut as first language, but out of 25 schools in the territory, 24 operate in English and one in French.

Why? "Ottawa refuses to ante up and pay for the Inuit language school system that would make this possible", says Rasmussen. "Ten years on, Inuit students still do not have the same rights as their Francophone schoolmates". One clear example: "The Nunavut government spends $3400 per year for language education for each francophone and only $48.50 on Inuktitut education for each Inuk."

The former advisor considers that "ten years ago, Parliament passed the Nunavut Act in order to welcome Inuit into Canada, but we left their language outside. It is now long overdue for Canadian lawmakers to fix this mistake and give Inuit their voices back". An important task, taking into account that "Inuktitut has been spoken by Inuit for 5000 years and should rightly be considered as a founding language of our nation".

Rabble.ca

The European Parliament withdraws criticism to language immersion

A new report approved yesterday by the European Parliament encourages member States to "safeguard multilingualism" in countries or regions in which two or more official languages coexist. The text was an initiative promoted by Catalan members of the European Parliament -Maria Badia (Catalan Socialist Party), Ignasi Guardans (CiU) and Raül Romeva (ICV)- and the Basque MEP Mikel Irujo (EA). The report was presented as a response to the voting questioning language immersion in Catalonia and the Basque Country, proposed by the European Popular Party (EPP) a few weks ago. The voting also called for the right of choosing Spanish as a schooling language.

The new proposal obtained 335 votes in favour, while 279 were against it. The report eliminates some clauses put forward by EPP MEP Luis Herrero-Tejedor, such as the paragraph stating that "no student will be deprived of education in the official language of the State". Members of the Spanish Popular Party, as Herrero-Tejedor, had been the promoters of the former resolution. According to Eurolang, some members of the European Popular Party have voted in favour of the new report. Such is the case of the Hungarian representatives.

EBLUL, an organization working for the promotion of language diversity and minoritised languages in Europe, has expressed satisfaction over the decision and has emphasized the effectiveness of its lobbying campaign, as it had presented several proposals to the European Parliament's commission on multilingualism.

Nationalia

A report presented to the European Parliament criticizes the lack of progress made with the ECRML

A study entitled "Multilingualism: between policy objectives and implementation" has been presented to the European Parliament. The report criticizes the lack of progress made by the member states as regards the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and recommends the Union to give its support to EBLUL, the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages.

The study analysed the policies carried out by European agencies and member states within the context of the Commission Communication "Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004-2006", a programme aiming at promoting language learning and cultural diversity. The report criticizes the action plan "for being too complex and not tailored to Member States realities". As a consequence, within the period 2004-2006 only 30% of its provisions have been implemented.

Almost at the same time, a new meeting -the last of the term- of the Intergroup on minorities has been held this week in the European Parliament. Within the framework of the European Dialogue Forum of Traditional National Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages, language policies of different member states were dealt with. Bernat Joan, secretary of language policy of the Catalan Government, spoke about the official status of Occitan, a language that, although only spoken in the north of Catalonia, enjoys official status within all the Catalan territory, Bernat Joan said that the experience has awakened interest among other similar cases in Europe, such as in Trentino -where Ladin is spoken- or Pomerania with the Kashubi language.

Nationalia

Less than 200,000 Breton speakers

Fañch Broudic, former journalist and author of several works on socio-linguistics, has published the results of the decadal survey on the practice of the Breton language. Between 1997 and 2007, the number of Breton speakers fell from 246,000 to 172,000 people. Some 35,000 people still speak Breton on a daily basis. But they are half as many as ten years ago. Tipically, Breton speakers are over 60 years old, from a rural environment in Lower Brittany. But there is some room for hope: the percentage of young people aged 15-19 speaking Breton has risen from 1 to 4% in ten years.

Ouest-France

Related links...
Nationalia: Breton language has lost 74,000 speakers in the last 10 years

Albania seeks jail for Greek mayor from Himara because he ordered the removal of monolingual signs

The ethnic Greek mayor of Himara, a coastal city in southern Albania, faces one year of prison and a fine of 38,000 euros for having caused a major disruption of traffic in this locality in December 2007 He had ordered the removal of road signs because they were only in Albanian, as he considered they should be also in Greek. Himara is located in the region that concentrates most of the Greek minority in Albania. In 2008, an Albanian court decided to prosecute Bollano, arguing that the mayor's decision cost taxpayers 170,000 euros. Before the withdrawal of the monolingual signs, Bollano had asked for more political and cultural rights for the Greek minority in southern Albania.

MónDivers

Related links...
Balkan Insight: Albania Seeks Jail for Ethnic Greek Mayor

Poland ratifies European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

Poland has definitely given green light to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), the European treaty established to protect and promote minoritised languages, after the country ratified it last February 12. Warsaw, which had already recognized the 15 languages, has made yet another step forward adding itself to the list of 23 CoE’s member states which are party to the Charter. According to the official list, the languages spoken in the Republic of Poland are the following (classification supplied by the government given in brackets): Kashub (as a regional language), Czech, Hebrew, Yiddish, Belarusian, Lithuanian, German, Armenian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian (as national minority languages), Karaim, Lemko, Romani and Tatar (as ethnic minority languages). The document establishes Hebrew, Yiddish, Karaim, Armenian and Romanian as non-territorial languages. Poland has placed all of the above languages at the Part III level of the Charter, which “affords the highest level of protection” to languages. The Charter will enter into force next June 1. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) was approved in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe, an international organization which currently includes 47 European states. 24 state members have signed and ratified it, mostly from Western Europe.

Nationalia

Turkey shows again contradictions over language rights

Once again Kurds have been victims of the arbitrariness with which Turkey deals with language diversity. Ahmet Turk, a Kurd deputy in the Assembly of Turkey belonging to the Democratic Society Party (DTP), was addressing the Kurdish MPs in Turkish but switched to Kurdish as soon as he referred to the International Mother Language Day observed by UNESCO on February 21: "In order to show that there is nothing to fear in using other languages and to emphasise brotherhood of languages during the International Day of Mother Tongues, let me continue my speech in Kurdish," he said. Immediately after he went off air as state television channel cut the live broadcast. Ahmed Turk, though, went on as Kurdish deputies applauded his colleague, and added: "Kurds have long been oppressed because they did not know any other language. I promised myself that I would speak in my mother tongue at an official meeting one day." Koksal Toptan, president of the Turkish Lower House, strongly criticised the Kurdish politician but said he would not be fined. Some Turkish MPs believe Turk's attitude is a "provocation". Kurds reminded that Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke a few words of Kurdish in a campaign rally just on Saturday without triggering controversy.

Nationalia

Related links...
Hurriyet: DTP speaks Kurdish in parliament, speaker says constitutional breach

UNESCO’s online atlas of endangered languages launched

On the occasion of the International Mother Language Day (February 21), UNESCO has launched the interactive version of the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. The study includes geographic location and relevant data about the condition of about 2,500 languages that run the risk of dying if nothing is done to reverse language shift.

The Atlas enables searches according to several criteria, and ranks the endangered languages that are listed according to five different levels of vitality: unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct.

Nationalia and Newsletter Mercator

Related links...
UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

A new information and networking site about Gaelic language launched

The Gaelic development agency Bòrd na Gàidhlig has launched a new information and networking site, Mygaelic.com. This site aims to be a reference for people who want to learn Gaelic or to know about Celtic culture and events in Scotland.

The website is also aimed at tourists visiting Scotland, to make them available minimal data on the traditional language of the country.

The site was launched by the then minister of Culture, Linda Fabiani, who said that "Gaelic is an essential element of Scotland’s heritage and current cultural life. It is vital for the future of Gaelic that we continue to develop the wide range of opportunities that now exist for the use and learning of the language".

Related links...
European Ombudsman

THE TEACHING OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN NORWAY CONSIDERED INSUFFICIENT

November 2006 – The Council of Europe has issued the second opinion of the Advisory Committee on the application of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Norway. In general terms, the Committee acknowledges that special projects enjoying government support have been launched in recent years to support and give new impetus to the Kven language. The Kven language is closely related to the three other official modern-day Finnic languages spoken in Northern Scandinavia: the Meänkieli language (spoken in today's Northern Sweden), the Karelian language (spoken in today's North-western Russia) and the Finnish language. Once considered a dialect of the Finnish language, Kven received a legal minority language status in 2005 within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Sami in Norway, though, are not covered by the Framework Convention because they are recognised as indigenous people, so they benefit from a specific protection regime.

The opinion points out that “positive legislative and practical measures have been taken with regard to the use of minority languages for personal names and topographical indications”. However, other fields suffer from lack of advancements: the Advisory Committee has not been informed of any initiative taken in order to introduce “legal guarantees for the use of minority languages in contacts with the administrative authorities, in particular for the Kvens, or to examine existing needs in this regard”. As regards the press, despite the increase in government funding, the Kvens consider that “the resources available to them for their written publications do not enable them to meet the needs of the Kven and Finnish-language population satisfactorily”. In addition, they think that increased funding on a more stable basis is essential in order to achieve the current objective of the Kven community, which is to convert the journal into a weekly publication.

According to the opinion, teaching of the mother tongue still poses problems for the Kvens. The Advisory Committee notes that “there are no plans at this stage for teaching in the Kven language”. It also seems that, apart from the Kven, "the needs of other groups as regards minority language teaching have not been adequately considered".

Related links...
Second opinion
Related article from the Government and the Ministries
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Norway)

PRESENTED IN SARDINIA THE PROJECT NURÀMINIS BILÌNGUA

November 2006 – The Council of Nuràminis celebrated on October the 30th a public assembly to present the project Nuraminis Bilingue–Nuràminis Bilìngua. The project, funded by means of the economic provisions included in the Act 482/1999 on the protection of historical linguistic minorities, aims at putting into practice the highest possible degree of bilingualism Italian-Sardinian in the town. This bilingualism is intended to affect all social and public life, from the administrative and economic spheres to the field of culture, sports and education. Nuràminis belongs to the province of Cagliari and has a population of nearly 3,000 people. It is expected that the project will be tested in other towns of Sardinia.

There is already an operative office which offers linguistic advice to the local administration and the rest of citizens, translates all kind of documents and co-ordinates all the activities. A free course of Sardinian language for the town council staff –but open to general public too– is also being organized.

Related links...
Act 482/1999
Regional Act nº 26 of 1997: Promotion and valuing of the culture and language of Sardinia (in Italian)
Euromosaic: Sardinian in Italy

LANGUAGE ACT FOR NORTHERN IRELAND PLANNED

October 2006 - The British government will introduce an Irish Language Act in Northern Ireland to promote the development of the Irish language, as part of the agreement which emerged from the peace talks in Saint Andrews, Scotland, on the 13th of October. Furthermore it proposes a possible bill of rights, which may include language rights. The St Andrews Agreement states that “the Government will introduce an Irish Language Act reflecting on the experience of Wales and Ireland and work with the incoming Executive to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language”. It also mentions that “The Government firmly believes in the need to enhance and develop the Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture and will support the incoming Executive in taking this forward”.

01Tzhe Irish Language Act was one of Sinn Féin’s demands going into the talks but the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, is worried about the Irish Language Act being used as a vehicle to erode Britishness in the region. Moreover, the DUP has said that they will take all necessary steps to ensure that money is not ‘wasted’ on Irish language schemes. In contrast with this statements the SDLP, which lost ground on the last round of Stormont elections in 2003, has said that “unionist politicians need to stop using the Irish language as a political football in blatant point scoring exercises”.

The promises of new legislation can be considered as an important achievement for the Irish Language umbrella organisation POBAL, which has been long campaigning for new legislation. In a document published earlier in 2006 with the title “The Irish Language Act NI” they proposed a strong, rights based Irish language Act that would clarify and strengthen the rights of Irish speakers throughout the north to a range of Irish language services in areas such as education, the courts and employment. Janet Muller, Chief Executive POBAL, said that currently, “there are no domestic legal protections for the Irish language. The north of Ireland is the only place in British isles where the primary indigenous language is in this position”. Thus, the document has certainly revolutionised the debate around the needs of the Irish speaking community.

YOUNG ETHNIC ROMAS ASK FOR STATE UNIVERSITY IN MOTHER TONGUE (Divers news bulletin)

October 2006 - Various ethnic Roma youngsters' lit candles Tuesday, October 17, in Matei Corvin piazza, the position of the candles accounting for the word "Bolyai-Egyetemet (Bolyai University)". They ask for the setting up of a state university in ethnic Hungarian language and for the financing from Romania's state budget of ethnic Hungarian private universities Sapientia and Partium. The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census.

Bolyai University is the largest state-funded tertiary education institution in Transylvania. More than 30% of courses are held in the Hungarian language. There is currently a proposal by local Hungarians, supported by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, to separate the Hungarian-language department from the institution, and form a new, Hungarian-only Bolyai University. The former Bolyai University was disbanded in 1956 by Romanian Communist authorities and united with the Romanian Babeº University to form the multilingual Babeº-Bolyai University that continues to exist today. According to Romania's minority rights law, Hungarians have the right to education in their native language, including as a medium of instruction, in localities where they make up more than 20% of the population. However, the ratio of Hungarians graduating from higher education is lower than the national average.

Cristina Sandor, president with the Hungarian Youngsters' Council in Romania, said that "Ethnic Hungarians in Romania are the only numerous ethnic group in Europe that has not established an academic education. Babes-Bolyai university is not subject to multiculturalism because the education in ethnic Hungarian tongue has no financial autonomy and cannot be efficiently organized. We pay the taxes of Romania and we think we are entitled to a state university in ethnic Hungarian”.

LANGUAGE REFORM IN TURKEY COMPLETELY INSUFFICIENT, SAYS IHF

October 2006 – Amidst the current negotiations for the possible future accession of Turkey to the European Union, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights has published a 26-page briefing paper entitled Turkey: A Minority Policy of Systematic Negation. IHF is an international, nongovernmental organization constituted by national Helsinki Committees and Cooperating Organizations in the participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The briefing paper discusses the legal basis for Turkey’s restrictive minority polices, its interpretation by authorities, and an abundant misuse of laws against minority members and individuals who seek to promote minority rights. According to the report, “Turkey continues to practice a policy of “Turkification””. This policy amounts to strategies that include denying formal recognition of minority groups, hindering their access to the media, limiting their political participation and violating their freedom of expression, especially in their own language.

With reference to the Kurdish language, the report points out that “recent reforms that have lifted some language restrictions in broadcasting and education of minority languages have been clearly insufficient”, and that “it is by law prohibited to use any other language but Turkish in political activities”.

As regards other languages such as Greek or Armenian, the report states that “in practice the proper functioning of minority schools is hindered in several ways”, even though non-Muslim religious minorities have the right to give language education in their own language.

Related links...
Report
Mercator Working Paper: Recent changes in Turkey's Language Legislation
Language legislation in Turkey

EXISTENCE OF MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE DENIED BY GREEK AUTHORITIES

October 2006 – Greek state officials have declared there is no such thing as a Macedonian language in Greece nor a Macedonian alphabet, and that the Muslim Turkish minority in western Thrace is the only minority within the State. These are some of the excerpts Catalan MEP Bernat Joan of the European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament and party co-director Gënther Dauwen gathered from their meeting with national, regional and local representatives of Greece.

The two MP visited Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria to examine the situation of linguistic rights of Macedonian speakers who live outside the Republic of Macedonia. Bernat Joan has declared that “it is unacceptable and counter productive to deny the existence of the Macedonian people and the language which they speak. We challenge the Greek authorities in Athens to organise a census in which all citizens can declare openly the language and culture to which they relate”. Not surprisingly, Bulgaria –next member state– and Greece have not signed neither the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages nor the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

IMMIGRATION, LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND SOCIAL COHESION TACKLED IN CATALONIA

October 2006 – The Mercator network hold its 5th International Symposium on Minority Languages last week in Barcelona under the title “Language Rights as a Social Inclusion Factor”. More than one hundred participants attended the 3-day long symposium organized by CIEMEN-Mercator Legislation with the support of the European Commission and Linguamón-House of Languages.

The event tackled the fundamental question of how to respect and deal with the issue of new immigrants and their languages within a developing European context. Theoretical, practical and policy issues were debated, and the Catalan innovations in terms of promoting social inclusion through the Catalan language became a central inspiration of the discussions. The experience of regional “minority” languages was used as an invaluable set of experiences to deal with the linguistic diversity, and many society’s key areas such as education, the health system, employment and the economy revealed that with a determined political effort and professional training it is possible to improve the quality of life of new migrants in real, practical ways, and in time to welcome such migrants as a permanent enrichment of societies.

Mercator-Legislation is currently preparing a publication with the papers and conclusions of the symposium, which will be made public early next year.

Related links...
Mercator: Programme and sessions of the 5th Symposium
Related news:AVUI (in Catalan)
Linguamón-House of Languages

THE DUTY TO KNOW BASQUE IN COURTS DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

October 2006 – The Spanish Constitutional Court has made public a sentence that declares null and void some parts of a decree approved by the Basque government to extend the use of the Basque language in courts. The decree 117/2001 regulated the levels of language competence required for assignment of official posts in Basque courts.

According to the sentence, the Basque autonomous government has powers over some staff recruitment such as court officers, judicial administrative assistants, bailiff’s clerks and forensic surgeons and consequently keeps legislative jurisdiction over language requirements. However, the Constitutional court has declared that the duty to know Basque –Basque Country’s co-official language– cannot be applied to judges, public prosecutors and secretaries because it violates State powers.

In this regard, the report and the recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts issued in 2005 on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Spain, observe that “the Spanish state has not taken the necessary legal and practical measures needed to ensure that judicial and state administration staff have a working knowledge of the co-official languages”. They also point out that “a general problem affecting all languages covered under Part III is related to the field of justice”. Behatokia, the Basque Observatory of Linguistic Rights, has said that the sentence “not only violates the linguistic rights of Basque speakers, but the right to self-defence and to effective legal protection”.

Related links...
Sentence (in Spanish)
Report on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Spain
Behatokia

HIGH LEVEL GROUP ON MULTILINGUALISM SET UP BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

September 2006 - Ján Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, has confirmed the setting up of a high level group in order to advise him on multilingualism issues. More specifically, the group will propose initiatives and give fresh impetus and ideas for a comprehensive approach to multilingualism in the European Union. The group has been set up in response to the communication “A new framework strategy for multilingualism”, issued in 2005 by the European Commission

The committee consists of 11 independent experts from across Europe who do not represent the interests of one particular country or language. The voice of minority languages, though, seems ensured by several members belonging to communities with lesser used languages such as Rita Franceschini, from Bozan, Ineta Savickienė, from Lithuania, Jaana Sormunen, from Finland and particularly by Josep Palomero, from the Catalan-speaking community in Valencia. Under the chairmanship of Commissioner Figel, the group will hold its first meeting on October 3 and will meet 5 more times before the European Day of Languages (September 26 2007), date in which its recommendations will be made public.

Related links...
A new framework strategy for multilingualism
European Comission on Multilingualism
European Day of Languages

MERCATOR-LEGISLATION CELEBRATES THE EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES IN SARDINIA

September 2006 – Mercator-Legislation participated on September 26 in one of the initiatives undertaken to celebrate the European Day of Languages. Aureli Argemí, director of the Mercator-Legislation project, was invited to Sardinia by the Nùgoro University Partnership to give a talk on cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe. Authorities from Sardinia opened the session and introduced the rest of speakers, who addressed the audience on behalf of CIEMEN (Maria Areny), Radio Onde Furlane (Carli Pup) and the Sardinian Language Board (Diegu Corraine).

The European Day of Languages was established by the Council following the success of the European Year of Languages in 2001, and aims at raising awareness on the importance of language learning and diversifying the range of languages learnt in order to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding in the European Union. It is also intended to promote the rich linguistic diversity of Europe.

Related links...
Website of the European Day of Languages
EDL events
Legislation on Sardinian language

THE PROTECTION OF VENETIAN TO BE DISCUSSED IN PLENARY SESSION FROM 12 OCTOBER ONWARDS

September 2006 – The Regional Assembly of Veneto, with headquarters in Venice, will start the discussion of a bill on the protection, revalorisation and promotion of the Venetian language on 12 October. Mercator-Legislation had published the bill in Bulletin 65 and now informs on the assembly proceedings, which aims at granting Venetian a greater recognition.

Italy’s Minorities Act 482/99 only recognizes 12 linguistic minorities (French, Occitan, Franco-provençal, Catalan, Albanian, German, Friulian, Ladin, Slovenian, Sardinian, Greek and Croatian). However, there are several independent linguistic varieties –or languages– that developed directly from Latin and are still considered as “dialects”. This is the case of Venetian and Piedmontese. Intelligibility between them and Italian is quite low, and both enjoyed processes of literary standardization mainly during the 18th century.

Like in Piedmont, the Veneto Region has approved several laws over the years in respect of its linguistic heritage. A first law was passed in 1974 (Protection of the historical, linguistic and cultural heritage of Veneto Act), followed five years later by Regional Act 38/1979 on Interventions on the part of the Region for the knowledge of the local cultures and civilizations of Veneto, both of which were later revoked. In 1984 the Interventions of the Region for the development and the promotion of cultural activities Act was approved, followed three years later by Regional Act 8/1987. In 1990 the Regional Natural Park of Lessinia was finally established (Regional Law 12 of 1990), an institution whose aim was to protect not only the natural environment, but also the traditional cultures present in it. Finally in 1994 a comprehensive law was passed (Regional Act 73 on the Promotion of ethnic and linguistic minorities of Veneto), later modified by Act 3/1998, which protects and promotes German, Ladin, Friulian and other ethnic and linguistic communities present in the region.

Related links...
Proposal
Raixe Venete
Venetian Regional Council (in Italian)

FRIULIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE ACT: TEN YEARS OF ENACTMENT

September 2006 – The Friulian Language Act has is 10 years old. According to experts, the Friulian Language and Culture Act 15/96 approved in 1996 marked a significant step forward in the promotion of the language. The recognition of the language started in 1981, year in which testimonial regional regulations were approved. The act emanated from article 6 of the Italian constitution of 1948, which establishes that “the Republic protects linguistic minorities by special laws”.

The 15/96 Act envisaged among other matters, the introduction of Friulian language in elementary education, the setting up of the Observatory of the Friulian language and culture –a public watch-dog over the observance of the law– and the provision of funding for linguistic research. In spite of this, it has been agreed by policymakers, linguists and legal advisers attending the second edition of the Feste ladine, that 15/96 Act needs to be updated and adapted to the current social and legal framework. With regard to this, Mercator-Legislation informed last January about the drafting of a proposal aiming at dealing with the shortcomings of the law currently in force –particularly those related to language teaching– and the lack of observance of the State Law 482/1999, approved three years after and which establishes the protection of historical minority languages of Italy.

Roberto Antonaz, a regional advisor for culture, confirmed at the meeting the regional government’s commitment to revise the Act 15/96 in the short run. With this aim in mind, a working group in charge of drafting a new language act proposal has been constituted by the Autonomous Regional Council of Friuli Venezia Giulia in its last plenary session.

Related links...
Friulian Language Act (in Italian)
Mercator Working Paper on Friulian
Related Mercator news

ASTURIAN CIVIL SOCIETY MOBILIZES TO CLAIM OFFICIAL STATUS FOR ASTURIAN LANGUAGE

September 2006 - The association Conceyu Abiertu pola Oficialidá (CAO), made up of more than 150 political, cultural and social organizations from the Principality of Asturias, organized a demonstration in Xixón last August with the aim of putting pressure on the political parties to include the official status of the Asturian language in the draft of the forthcoming proposed revision of the Statute of Autonomy of Asturias.

The mobilization was held under the motto "In the revision of the Statute, Asturian official language". Article 4 of the Statute currently in force establishes that Bable or Asturian "will enjoy protection. Its use, presence in the mass media and in the education system, will be encouraged, respecting in every case the local varieties and the voluntary nature of learning the language", but does not consider it as official. Consequently, in accordance with the Spanish instrument of ratification of the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages, the provisions applicable to Asturian set forth in the Charter are less demanding than those laid down to be applicable to languages with official recognition such as Basque in the Basque Country and Navarre, Catalan in Valencian Country, Balearic Islands and Catalonia and Galician in Galicia.

According to the organisers, the public had a favourable response to the call and many signatures were gathered in favour of securing official status for Asturian in the new Statute. The demonstration has come in a particularly sensitive moment since, as Mercator reported, six militants of the Board for the Defence of the Asturian Language were processed for demanding officiality for the language.

Related links...
Conceyu Abiertu pola Oficialidá (in Asturian)
Situation of Asturian according to Euromosaic project
Related Mercator news

SIX MILITANTS OF THE BOARD FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE ASTURIAN LANGUAGE ARE PROCESSED FOR DEMANDING THE OFFICIALITY OF THE ASTURIAN LANGUAGE

July 2006 - The Board for the Defence of the Asturian Language has denounced, via a press release issued on the 26th July, that six of its militants have been called upon to the court of justice for demonstrating in favour of the officiality of Asturian.

According to the release, the militants processed were present in the inauguration of a health centre in Llugones on the 16th of June, presided by the head of the government of Asturias, Vicente Álvarez Areces, with the aim of claiming democratically against linguistic discrimination in Asturias.

The organization denounces that the intervention, both on behalf of the police and the judicature, are "actions contrary to the exercise of the right of freedom of speech and to the political disagreement". The Board for the Defence of the Asturian Language has made clear that they do not have the intention of stopping the public denunciation of the marginalisation that Asturian language-speakers suffer by their public institutions.

THE UKRANIAN GOVERNMENT TAKES MEASURES TO RECOGNIZE RUSSIAN

September 2006 - A press release distributed during a meeting of the Ukranian Government promises to make Russian the second state language in Ukraine. The measures for its recognition are included in a program being developed by the Cabinet as part of the government activities to be carried out from 2006 to 2011.

The humanitarian policy section of the draft program says that the Government will carry out a consistent policy to uphold the freedom of choice of communication and education language and therefore will recognize Russian as the second language of the state. The policy also envisages removing obstacles in the way of the development of all cultures and the rendering of assistance in maintaining national, cultural, linguistic and spiritual variety as a guarantee of the further development of the society.

The decision has come after the pro-Moscow Party of Regions led by Viktor Yanukovych won the general elections last March. As Mercator Legislation informed in previous months, the Party of Regions campaigned -specially in the eastern part of the country where a majority of Russian-speaking population live- on a promise to make Russian a second state language.

Related links...
Related Mercator news
Related Mercator news
Constitution of Ukraine

ISSUED THE FIRST NATIONAL PLAN FOR SCOTTISH GAELIC

August 2006 - The first ever National Plan for Gaelic has been put out for public consultation by Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the statutory Gaelic Development Agency. This public body was established under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 to promote Gaelic both in Scotland and abroad. The Act, which was commenced in February this year, requires the Bòrd to prepare a National Plan for Gaelic to establish a strategic approach to the development of the language and its culture.

The draft plan proposes measures to normalise the use and promote the development of Gaelic and its culture across the full spectrum of home and community life, building on the many successful initiatives which have already taken place across Scotland. Bòrd na Gàidhlig Chief Executive, Allan Campbell said that “the consultation process enables all those with an interest in Gaelic to contribute to the plan, and the Bòrd is keen to encourage the maximum possible response to achieve a positive consensus”. He also declared that “it is clearly very important that the Gaelic community takes ownership of the plan and works in effective partnership to realise its aspirations for Gaelic.”

The Bòrd will be holding a programme of public meetings across Scotland until 10th November to present the draft National Plan and to enable discussion of its proposals. The organisers hope that these meetings will attract considerable interest and that they will assist people to respond effectively to the consultation.

Related links...
Bòrd na Gàidhlig
National Plan for Gaelic
Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005

LATVIA WON'T GRANT CITIZENSHIP IF LANGUAGE TESTS ARE FAILED

August 2006 - The Latvian government introduced on August 8 new laws for granting citizenship. According to the laws, those who fail a Latvian language test three times won't be granted citizenship.

Almost 20 per cent of the country's population cannot vote, cannot hold most types of public posts and requires a visa to visit other EU countries, except for Estonia, Lithuania and Denmark. Such group is made up of 450,000 people, mostly Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. They have been considered "non-citizens" to emphasize the illegality of the Soviet occupation, which lasted for almost 50 years (1991) and which has never been recognized by most Western countries. During Soviet rule, thousands of Latvians were deported to labour camps in Siberia, while hundreds of thousands of Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians settled in Latvia.

Last June the Latvian parliament rejected amendments to the citizenship law that would broaden the rights for non-citizens to obtain citizenship. The amendments were proposed by the leftist alliance For Human Rights in United Latvia. Under the draft proposal, all residents who had completed secondary school after Sept. 1, 1999 or had finished schools where at least half of the curriculum was in the Latvian language would have the right to obtain citizenship.

A second EU country with a similar category of non-citizens is neighbouring Estonia.

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE SAYS THERE IS SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS IN SLOVAKIA

August 2006 - According to the resolution adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the legislative framework of the Slovak Republic still contains shortcomings in the financing of minority cultures and instruction in minority languages and the personal scope of application of certain linguistic rights.

The resolution, though, positively recognizes the efforts made by the Ministry of Culture to increase the financial support to minorities and welcomes the legislative changes made on anti-discrimination issues such as the adoption of Act No. 365/2004 Coll. on equal treatment. In spite of this, it points out that the number of classes with instruction in the Roma language, for instance, remains too limited.

The Committee of Ministers recommends, therefore, to pursue the efforts to complete the legislative framework pertaining to national minorities, including in the fields of culture and education, and ensure that the content and interpretation of language-related laws are in line with these efforts. It also advises the Slovak authorities to create further opportunities to receive Roma language teaching.

MERGING OF WELSH LANGUAGE BOARD WITH GOVERNMENT PLANNED

August 2006 - Meri Huws, Chair of the Welsh Language Board, welcomed the positive steps taken by the Assembly of Wales and the UK Government to strengthen the position of the Welsh language in the Government of Wales Bill.

As a result of passing the Bill, it will be a statutory duty for the Assembly Government to treat Welsh and English on the basis that they are equal and to implement and regularly revise a statutory Language Plan. The Government will have a duty to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language and to maintain, update and evaluate a policy outlining how it intends to do so.

Furthermore, and with regard to the Government actions, Alun Pugh, Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport, confirmed the details for the process of merging the Welsh Language Board with Government and setting up the office of the Dyfarnydd (adjudicator) on a statutory basis.

Alun Pugh said that "merging the Welsh Language Board with Government will improve democratic accountability and crucially create a powerhouse for growing the Welsh language at the heart of Government". He added that "we intend to use the provisions of the Government of Wales Bill to bring this about."

Related links...
Government of Wales Bill
A National Action Plan for a Bilingual Wales (Iaith Pawb)
Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Board)

A PH.D THESES ANALYSES THE LANGUAGE POLICY BY THE AUTONOMOUS GOVERNMENTS OF VALENCIA BETWEEN 1983 AND 2003 (Univesity of Valencia)

July 2006 – The University of Valencia’s researcher, Anselm Bodoque, is the author of a doctoral thesis that analyses the language policy of the Valencian Autonomous governments between 1983 and 2003.

Dr. Bodoque’s aim was to identify the similarities and the differences between the language policies by the different executives of the Socialist Party of Valencia (PSPV) and of those of the conservatives Popular Party (PP). He has also research the influence that these policies have had on the evolution of the Valencian linguistic conflict on its double contemporary debate: the discussion about the identity of Valencians and the process of linguistic substitution of Valencian by Spanish language.

The research of Anselm Bodoque, with the title of "The Valencian Language and the Policies of Autonomic Governments (1983-2003). A Case Study of Public policies", concludes that observing the basic features of the models of implementation followed by the PSPV and the PP it can be said that that they are quite similar, in spite of the different networks of social actors with which each Executive has collaborated with and the differences that originally sustained both parties in relation to the Catalan language identity.

Other conclusions are that "the implemented language policies have proved to be inefficient to overcome the conflict –originated during the Spanish transition- about the Valencian identity. According to Bodoque, they have not found a way to depoliticise the language debate, no they have achieved the main goal in any government’s language which is to favour the recovery of the social use of the language and to end -in this case- the processes of language substitution and minoritsation of the Catalan language or Valencian in Valencia.

BAN ON OFFICIAL USE OF RUSSIAN IN THE JAMBYL REGION OF SOUTHERN KAZAKHSTAN DISCONCERTS NON-KAZAK SPEAKERS

July 2006 - The deputy governor of the region of Jambyl in southern Kazakhstan, Kenesbek Demeshev, announced that Kazakh would be the only language used for local government activities, leaving the non-Kazakh community Russian-speaking, just under a third of Jambyl's population, confused and angry.

The governor's ruling brings into sharp focus a long-running debate over the Kazakh language. Although Kazakh is the “state language” and has a higher status, Russian is considered a “official” language and it is more widely used in the territory, especially for business.

Ever since independence, efforts have been made to encourage Kazakh language usage. But these have been mostly poorly-executed. As a result, the use of Kazak has diminished while the number of people who count themselves as Russian speakers has steadily grown.

It's unclear how the government will respond to the Jambyl episode, but there are signs that it wants to devote more energy to encouraging the use of Kazak - it has instructed the committee for languages, which comes under the ministry of culture, to come up with new approaches to the problem. (Source: Multiethnic Newsletter)

PUBLICATION OF THE 2005 REPORT ON THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE EU

July & August 2006 - The Network of independent experts in fundamental rights of the EU has published their annual report for the year 2005. This is their fourth annual report where they analyse questions relating to the main areas of the protection of human rights including the protection of linguistic diversity.

In the section regarding the protection of the linguistic minorities they refer to six countries; Austria, Estonia, Slovenia, Spain, Poland and Lithuania. These are but some of the issues on the report:

- From Austria they express concerns about the climate of hostility against the Slovene minority of Carinthia, which has been exacerbated by attitude of the governor of Carinthia who has refused to implement the rulings of the Constitutional Court according certain rights to this group.

- Regarding Estonia, the Network regrets that the Administrative Division of the Supreme Court in its decision of 16 of June 2005 Loksa Town Council v Chessclub Olympic considered that the right to get answers in minority languages, enshrined in the Constitution, was linked to physical persons and did not create similar rights lo legal persons.

- In relation to Spain the Network’s report considers exemplary the use of Catalan in the Communication media and the education system.

The Net of experts does not have any competence in the application of measures to punish states for their actions against the rights set out in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights. Their role is to inform and recommend measures to promote the safeguarding of fundamental rights.

Related links...
Web page of the Network of Experts in Fundamental Right in the EU
Annual report on the Fundamental rights of the EU in 2005

AUSTRIAN CHANCELLOR ANNOUNCES COMPROMISE ON BILINGUAL SIGNS

July & August 2006 - Wolfgang Schüssel has announced a new compromise agreement on bilingual signs in Carinthia. The proposal has the support of the government coalition as well as the opposition Social Democrats and the Association of Carinthian Slovenes. The Council of Carinthian Slovenes, the second largest organisation representing the Slovene minority, as well as the Austrian Greens, have rejected it. Both groupings say the compromise is still not in line with the Austrian constitution. However the Austrian Chancellor’s proposal is expected to pass Parliament because it has the support of all major political parties. .

Schüssel’s compromise is based on the so called “Karner paper” and is a slightly modified version of the proposal the chancellor tabled two months earlier. The basis of the document is the erection of bilingual signage in all municipalities with more than 10% Slovenes and in settlements with more than 15% Slovenes. The municipalities are given until 2009 to implement the new law. Overall 65 new bilingual signs are due to be erected. .

Austrian President Heinz Fischer and the Slovene government also welcomed the compromise agreement. Nevertheless, opposition parties in Slovenia criticised the Slovene government claiming that the new law is still in breach of the Austrian State Treaty of 1955. Since then there have been various attempts to find a consensus between majority and minority on the matter in Austria. (Source: Eurolang) .

Related links...
Austrian State Treaty of 1955 (in French)
Related news (Mercator)
Euromosaic: Eslovenian in Austria

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF NAVARRE FINALLY LEGALISES THE BASQUE-MEDIUM SCHOOLS IN SOUTHERN NAVARRE

July 2006 – The Navarrese government and representatives of the Basque-medium schools (ikastolak) in the non Basque-speaking areas of Navarre have signed a protocol that establishes a general framework to secure the economic viability of these schools for the next years. The agreement was signed by linguistic policy representatives of the Government of Navarre, the Federation of Ikastolas of Navarre and the general secretary of CDN, the second party in the governmental coalition. It assigns 1,718,253 milion € for 2006; 1,798,724 for 2007; 1,758,489 for 2008, 1,758,489 for 2009 and 1,758,489 for 2010.

According to the Basque Language Act of 1986, the Basque language is not co-official in the non Basque-speaking area located in the South of Navarre and therefore the parents that wish their children to study in Basque must take them to the ikastolas, institutions that have no legal basis and are not regulated by the administration. The ratification of the agreement has been the conclusion of the negotiations that started in November 2005, which aimed at putting an end to the non-regulated situation of the these educational centres. The government economic support means the official recognition and legalisation for the ikastolas, which will be able to opt to public funding programmes, grants for students and training schemes for teachers.

Peio Mariñelarena, director of the Federation of Ikastolas of Navarre stated that this was a “historic and unparalleled” agreement, and reminded that it has been achieved thanks to the insistence of parents associations to educate their children in Basque.

V MERCATOR INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCED FOR OCTOBER UNDER THE TITLE "LINGUISTICS RIGHTS AS A MATTER OF SOCIAL INCLUSION"

June 2006 - The V Mercator International Symposium organised this year by the Legislation and Language Rights center will be held on 19, 20 and 21 October 2006 in Barcelona (Catalonia) and will be entitled "Linguistics Rights as a Matter of Social Inclusion".

The organisers have designed de symposium on the premise that Europe has always been a multilingual land and that this fact has been accentuated in recent decades by the steady arrival and settlement on the continent by non-Europeans who have brought their languages with them. Therefore, current linguistic reality in Europe is richer and more complex than ever. In accordance with the Mercator network principles, this complexity musn’t necessarily be a problem. On the contrary, the languages spoken in the European Union today are one of the keys to making possible the "union in diversity" of all citizens, groups, communities, and peoples that live together in Europe.

To encourage such harmony, the Symposium will reflect on which kind of multilingualism should the European Union put into practice now and in the future. The question will be raised on how the linguistic rights of immigrants and of receiving communities can be regulated and guaranteed and, more specifically, how the exercise of these rights could stimulate the social inclusion of newcomers who settle among minoritized linguistic communities that share their space with majority or dominant languages. The V Mercator International Symposium will critically analyse the issues under consideration and will also present a series of practice cases for balancing individual rights and the collective rights of speakers of the languages of immigration and the speakers of minoritized languages within the European Union.

Registration closes 9 October 2006 and will be on a 'first come first served' basis.

Details at: secretaria@ciemen.org

Check http://www.mercator-central.org for further information

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ALLOWS THE WRITTEN COMMUNICATION OF CITIZENS IN BASQUE, CATALAN AND GALICIAN (Avui / Vilaweb)

June/July 2006 – The European Parliament’s Bureau has approved a proposal by the Spanish State to allow citizens to address the Euro chamber in Basque, Catalan and Galician, two month after its initial rejection.

The result of the vote of the Bureau, which is made up by the President of the European Parliament and the 14 Vice-presidents, resulted in a draw of 7 to 7. The quality vote of the President, the socialist Josep Borrell, decided the final result in favour of the proposal. The European People’s Party (EPP) representatives voted in bloc against the proposal in contrast with the vote in favour by all the other political parties.

Moreover, the former proposal, presented on the 26th of April of this year, included also the possibility for MEPs to use these languages in the Plenum. Nevertheless, the President Borrell, pressured by the strong opposition form the populars, decided to exclude this matter from the Bureau’s agenda, limiting the proposal to the relations between the citizens and the Parliament.

THE COURTS OF ARAGON APPROVE THE REFORM OF THE STATUTE THAT AVOIDS THE PROTECTION OF ARGONESE AND CATALAN LANGUAGES

June 2006 – With the abstention of the political party Chunta Aragonesista (CHA), the Courts of Aragon have approved, on the 21rst of June, a reform of the Statute of Aragon without contemplating Aragonese and Catalan the own languages of Aragon. The text, which is now in the hands of the Spanish Parliament where it will be discussed and lately approved before May 2007, avoids to make an explicit reference to both languages, even if article 8 of the introduction is entirely dedicated to “the own languages and linguistic modalities of Aragon”

The third reform of the Statute of Autonomy of the Autonomous Community of Aragon establishes that a future law of the Aragonese Courts –a law which has been postponed for two decades– will determine the boundaries of the zones where both languages are spoken, and regulate their protection, recovery and teaching provisions. This future law will also establish the rights of its speakers to use both languages in their relations with the public administration. However, what does mention the renewed Statute is that “no one could be discriminated on the grounds of language”.

Related links...
Reforma de l’Estatut de la Comunitat Autònoma d’Aragó (in Spanish)
Related news (Mercator)
Congress of Deputies

WELSH GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR USE OF WELSH IN EUROPE (Eurolang)

June 2006 - Following the decision made by EU Foreign Affairs Ministers to give citizens the possibility of using additional languages in their relations with the EU institutions, the Welsh Assembly Government Ministers and officials are discussing the practicalities with regard to Welsh with the UK Government and the European Institutions.

Once the outstanding practical issues are resolved, then the UK Government could start formal negotiations which, if successful, will mean that; Welsh could be used in speeches at the Council of Ministers and plenary sessions of the Committee of the Regions (CoR). Also it would mean that correspondence to the CoR, the Council and the Commission in Welsh would be answered in Welsh; and that European legislation translated into Welsh may be sent to the Council for addition to its archives.

The Minister for Culture, Sport and the Welsh Language, Alun Pugh said: "If the Assembly Government’s proposals are accepted, then the Assembly Government will be responsible for bearing the costs of translation". Such an arrangement contrasts with those made for Catalan, Basque and Galician languages where the Spanish government covers the costs and not the autonomous governments.

Related links...
General Affairs and External Relations Council conclusions. June 13-14, 2005
Related news (Mercator)
The Welsh Assembly Government

THE CATALAN EURO MP, BERNAT JOAN, CALLS FOR A EUROPEAN LANGUAGE POLICY WHICH DOES NOT DISCRIMIATE NON-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF THE UNION

June 2006 - On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, Bernat Joan, MEP for Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and Parliament's rapporteur on the Commission’s Communication "A new framework strategy for multilingualism", will explain his views on the subject and how the parliament should encourage the European Union to adopt a linguistic policy based on genuine multilngualism.

The press conference, which took place the 6 of June, followed a meeting of experts in the European Parliament earlier in the day. Among the participants there was Aureli Argemí, President of CIEMEN and Director of MERCATOR-Linguistic Rights and Legislation as well as Mònica Sabata from the Monitoring Committee of the Universal Declaration on Linguistic Rights and EBLUL. There was also present Miquel Strubell, from the Open University of Catalonia and Coordinator ADUM project and Vicent Climent-Ferrando, from Linguamón – The house of Languages, a Catalan Government iniciative.

Related links...
Commission Communication "A new framework strategy for multilingualism"
Related news (Mercator)
European Parliament

THE GOVERNMENT OF SARDINIA WILL INVEST 700,000 € ON SARDINIAN LANGUAGE TRAINING COURSES

June 2006 – The Region of Sardinia has launched a project to start training courses on Sardinian language and culture for school teachers and the region civil servants. To do so, the Sardinian Department of Public Instruction, Cultural Heritage, Information and Sports will be funded with 700,000 € by the Italian Council of Ministers and the Department for Regional Affairs on account of the Act 482/99 on the Protection of Historical Linguistic Minorities.

The courses will be organized and managed by the University of Cagliari and the University of Sassari, which have designed the courses depending on the purposes of the participants. Thus, the courses for teachers will be further divided into two syllabus, one assigned to those who already have experience in teaching the language and another for those who have a knowledge of the language but have never used it in class. The courses for civil servants will focus on administrative language and elaboration and translation of official records, as well as on notions on local, regional and estate law and history of Sardinian institutions.

Elisabetta Pilia, responsible for the Sardinian Department of Public Instruction, Cultural Heritage, Information and Sports has issued the news a few weeks after a common Sardinian language has been adopted by the government as a standard written form.

Related links...
Act 482/1999: Norms on the protection of historical linguistic minorities
Related news (Mercator)
Autonomous Region of Sardinia (in Italian)

FUEN ADOPTS A NEW CHARTER FOR AUTOCHTONOUS EUROPEAN NATIONAL MINORITIES (Eurolang)

May 2006 – Members of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) adopted a new document relating to the rights of minorities in Europe at their annual assembly hosted this year by the Sorbian community in Bautzen – Budyšin,

The first part of the Charter recalls existing international documents and highlights the "lack of binding international provisions”. The scope of the Charter, as explained in the document itself, is both to emphasize the positive role of the autochthonous, national minorities in Europe and to call for the preservation of natural bilingualism and multilingualism “as a natural richness of Europe”.

The document defines the term ‘national minority’ as people resident in the state, citizens of the state, but in a smaller number than the rest of the citizens, the members of the community being resident in the relevant area for generations and distinguished from the majority population by ethnic, linguistic or cultural characteristics, which they wish to preserve. One principle, stressed by the Charter, is positive discrimination for national minorities. The Charter lists fundamental rights including the “right to adopted forms of self-determination and cultural autonomy”.

One political demand is that there is binding minority protection under international law. The document addresses some specific institutions as well: the European Union has been requested to respect its motto “Unity in diversity”, and not only to refer to Member States and their official languages. Also, the Council of Europe is requested to expand its protection measures to cover collective rights.

Finally, States have been requested to recognise all minorities, to improve protection standards and to ratify both the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National minorities.

It is hoped that the new document will give FUEN members and other minority organisations the basic guidelines on what they have to ask for and what they need to achieve.

Related links...
Related news (Eurolang)
Charter for Autochtonous European National Minorities
Signatures and ratifications of the ECRML

NON-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF THE EU TO BE EXCLUDED FROM EUROPEAN INDICATOR OF LANGUAGE COMPETENCE

May 2006 – In a resolution approved by the plenary, the European Parliament calls on the citizens studying or working in the Union “to have a practical grasp of at least two languages other than his own”, as “the acquisition of just one common language of communication (as a lingua franca) is not sufficient”. According to the resolution, a good knowledge of languages is an essential skill all the European citizens should have in order to create a genuine European employment market. The text was approved on April 27th by 435 votes in favour to 22 against with 23 abstentions.

One of the measures included in the resolution is the creation of an European Indicator of Language Competence common to all member states, which will seek to prevent divergent criteria for assessing language competence in Europe. The resolution shares the Commission's view that “in the initial phase this indicator should be used to assess linguistic proficiency in the five most widely taught languages in the Union (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) and calls on the Commission and the Council, however, to take the necessary measures to extend these tests to a wider range of official Union languages.

The resolution also endorses the Commission proposal regarding participation by the Member States and regional authorities with competence for language policy in developing the indicator to the full. It remains to be seen whether this measure leaves a door open for non-official European languages to be included in the Indicator of Language Competence programme, since the document do not mention them at all.

THE SPANISH SUPREME COURT RECOGNISES THAT CATALAN AND VALENCIAN ARE THE SAME LANGUAGE

May 2006 – The Spanish Supreme Court has announced a decision that revokes the instruction ordered by the Valencian ministry for Education in 1995, which established that validation of Catalan language qualifications issued by the Catalan and the Balearic governments no longer applied in the Valencian Country. The appeal against the instruction of the Valencian Ministry for Education was lodged by Acció Cultural del País Valencià (Valencian cultural association) and Sindicat de Treballadors i Treballadores de l'Ensenyament-Intersindical Valenciana (Valencian trade union).

The decision was based on the grounds that the terms Catalan and Valencian are different designations that one common language receives in different territories. The court took into account the fact that such idea is endorsed by dictionaries of prestigious institutions, as well as the fact that in official state regulations, studies in Catalan Philology cover a sole area of knowledge. It is also endorsed by the statutes of University of Valencia, University of Alacant and University Jaume I (Castelló) and in former case law in favour of the unity of Catalan language.

Eliseu Climent, general secretary of Acció Cultural del País Valencià –the main NGO promoting Catalan culture in Valencia– has said that “the decision recognising the unity of the language is a long-awaited victory expected for the last 11 years”. Sindicat de Treballadors i Treballadores de l'Ensenyament-Intersindical Valenciana stated that the court decision is a “very important step towards the unity of Catalan language”.

THE REGIONAL GOVERNMENT OF SARDINIA ADOPTS A STANDARD FORM OF SARDINIAN LANGUAGE

May 2006 – The Region of Sardinia has officially approved the adoption of the “common Sardinian language” (sa limba sarda comuna) as a standard written form. Such variety will be used by the administration in official events, translations of legal documents and for addressing the citizens of the island . The common language, which will go through a period of experimentation, aims at revitalizing the distinctive traits of Sardinian and ensure understanding amongst speakers of different geographical varieties.

The Autonomous Region of Sardinia regulates the Sardinian language through a law that also deals with the culture of the island. It is the Regional Act nº 26 on promotion and valuing of the culture and language of Sardinia, which came as a result of a long dispute between the regional government and the Constitutional Courts of the Italian state and was previous to the Act 482/1999 -enacted by the central government- on Norms on the protection of historical linguistic minorities. Thus, the former only promotes cultural activities in favour of Sardinian on history and popular tradition-related issues, whereas the latter recognizes Sardinian as the language of an historic minority but does not elevate its status.

The first official record in limba comuna has been the document entitled “Experimental norms of reference of the regional administration for the written Sardinian language”. In addition, one of the first measures that has been taken to support the adoption of the standard is the creation of the Sardinian Language Office, which will watch over the fulfilment of the language laws and will monitor the observance of the norms adopted.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT INTERGROUP DEMANDS THAT FRANCE RATIFIES THE ECRML, FCPNM AND THAT THE EU INTERVENE TO PROTECT MINORITISED LANGUAGES (Eurolang)

May 2006 - The European Parliament lesser-used language and national minority Intergroup met in Strasbourg with representatives from EBLUL France, comprising Bretons, Alsacians, and Occitans, and the Association of the French Regions. Following the meeting, Intergroup President and Hungarian Socialist Csaba Tabajdi (PES) issued a declaration demanding that France ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM). Furthermore, Mr Tabjadi called for the EU to intervene to help the languages on French territory that are now facing endangerment because of State policies that have led to serious decline.

The declaration asks France to “fully recognize the right to the existence of the citizens and peoples which make it up in their specificity, in particular through a system of education, media and a public space allowing the normal expression of their languages, the teaching of their cultures and their stories in accordance with the of UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity and the Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions”.

The President of the Intergroup also challenges the Member States and the European Union over the urgency of the measures to be taken and on their duty to intervene in order to protect the languages spoken in the French territory, taking into account the weakness in which these languages are in France, and in particular of the fast disappearance of the older generation, who still largely speak these languages but who are not being replaced.”

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE OFFICIAL STATUS OPPOSED BY UKRANIAN GOVERNMENT

May 2006 – Even though Ukrainian became the country's sole official language after Ukraine declared independence in 1991, two local administrations with a predominantly Russian-speaking population –the eastern region of Luhansk and the city of Sevastopol, in the Crimea– have tried to elevate the status of Russian. The pro-Moscow Party of Regions, which won the most votes in last month's parliamentary election, campaigned on a promise to make Russian a second state language.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko considers regional administrations have overstepped their authority by reinstating Russian as an official language. The Ukrainian president's press secretary Irina Gerashchenko recently said that “the president expresses his deep concern over these displays of sovereignty, and believes the local councils have exceeded their authorities in making these decisions”. Yushchenko's deputy chief-of-staff, Anatoliy Matviyenko, said on April 28 that the moves breach Ukraine's constitution, which states that Ukrainian is the sole state language. Meanwhile, Russia is closely watching the issue. The recent pronouncements by Ukrainian officials on the Russian language status fail to meet the international commitments of Ukraine, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots Andrei Kokoshin said. He also stated that the regional status of the Russian language corresponds to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages the Ukrainian parliament has ratified.

According to some analysts such as Stephen Velychenko, from University of Toronto, granting Russian an official status in the country would reinforce the old imperial Russian tie and would impede the creation of new ties with the EU and the rest of the world, which speaks English.

Related links...
Related news
Constitution of Ukraine
Resolution on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Ukraine

COMMISSION SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR A NEW NETWORK TO PROMOTE LESSER-USED LANGUAGES (Eurolang)

The European Commission DG Education and Culture hosted a well attended conference in Brussels on Thursday and Friday last week gathering many of Europe’s lesser used language experts. The theme focused on education in lesser used languages with the commissioner Ján Figel indicating that in 2007 the Commission may support a new network to promote regional and minority languages in Europe.

Ján Figel explained that “the Commission is committed to maintaining linguistic diversity” and how the regional and minority languages of Europe are a great wealth. He outlined that specific aims would be to raise awareness and actual language learning and that NGOs and governmental organisations alike should “get ready to take advantage of the opportunities coming up”.

Mr Figel praised the success of the network of language boards, EBLUL and the Mercator Centres, highlighting EBLUL’s successful expansion eastwards into the new member states. He indicated that these organisations could together become “an enlarged network at the EU level”.

The conference continued on Friday with EBLUL President Neasa Ní Chinnéide discussing EBLUL’s expansion eastwards and the success of PfD and Eurolang, and with the Mercator Network informing on its activities and its work done by almost 20 years.

The conference closed with Head of the Commission’s Multilingualism Unit Jacques Delmoly suggesting that “perhaps what we should do is give a particularly favourable look at RML projects” when they are applying for funding.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE FCNM SECRETARIAT LAUNCHES A NEW ONLINE BIBLIOGRAPHY ON NATIONAL MINORITIES

April 2006 - The Secretariat of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has just made available an online bibliography on national minorities on their minorities website www.coe.int/minorities.

In accordance with the information published in Eurolang, a spokesperson for the FCNM Secretariat said that "it started off as a working document which was occasionally shared with researchers or other persons seeking information on national minorities in Europe. Rather than keep it to ourselves, we have decided to share it with the wider public and will endeavour to keep it updated on a regular basis. We hope you will find it useful."

The new bibliography on national minorities has been prepared as a working document by the Secretariat of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and, in spite of not being exhaustive, it covers the member states of the Council of Europe. It also includes opinions, comments, state reports and country-specific resolutions of the Committee of Ministers.

THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS RECOMMENDS GERMANY TO IMPROVE EDUCATION IN MINORITY LANGUAGES

April 2006 – The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recently issued the recommendations on the application of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages by Germany after analysing the Committee of Experts’ report. Germany ratified the ECRML in September 1998 and the current report belongs to the second monitoring cycle.

The report submitted by the experts state that the situation of regional or minority languages has not changed significantly since the first monitoring round and that the previous recommendations still remain valid. The Committee of Experts welcomes the adoption of the Frisian Law adopted by the Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein in 2004 and considers that similar measures are also needed in other länder concerned.

Besides, it regards as insufficient the efforts made by the German authorities to design planning and monitoring mechanisms for the development of regional or minority language education, and recommends to take urgent action to strengthen schooling in North Frisian, Sater Frisian and Lower Sorbian. It also reminds the German authorities that the shortage of adequately trained teachers at all levels of education remains one of the principal problems. As regards Lower German, the experts declare that it continues to be treated as a variant of German and therefore finds it difficult to find a place in the curricula as a subject in its own right. The use of Sorbian, Frison, Danish and Low German before administrative authorities remains marginal and largely absent from the private media. Furthermore it points out that more determined measures are needed to encourage the use of those languages in economic and social life.

As positive measures, the Committee deems valuable the steps taken to extend Part III protection to the Romany language, although expresses its concerns about the feasibility of some implementations since it has no standard written form and some Romany-speakers do not wish their language to have a presence outside their community.

Related links...
Report of the Committee of experts
Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers
Mercator information on the languages spoken in Germany

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VOTES AGAINST GALICIAN, BASQUE AND CATALAN LANGUAGES

April 2006 – The European Parliament refused again the possibility to allow its deputies and citizens to speak and address such institution in Galician, Basque and Catalan. The board of the Parliament, composed of the president, the socialist Josep Borrell, and the vice-presidents -one of whom is the Catalan conservative Aleix Vidal-Quadras, whose vote broke the tie- so decided for seven votes to six. The European Parliament is the only European representative body that still has not approved the use of the co-official languages of Spain once the Spanish state and the European Council signed an administrative arrangement in June 2005 that gave permission to Spain for negotiations with each European institutions to include the use of Galician, Basque and Catalan.

Most of Catalan parliamentarians accuse Vidal-Quadras, member of the European Popular Party, of preventing the use of those languages in the house. The Catalan and the Spanish governments have commented on the possibility to appeal the decision at the European Court of Justice and to solve the dispute in the European Council.

The voting was held one day before a delegation from Northern Catalonia (French Catalonia) demanded the European Parliament that Catalan language in France be given official status. The ten members of the Federation for the Protection of the Catalan Language and Culture in Northern Catalonia met with Intergroup MEP’s, a body promoting traditional national minorities, constitutional regions and regional languages presided by the Hungarian Csaba Tabajdi, and handed them a document entitled “No to language discrimination in Northern Catalonia”. They also asked the European institutions to call upon France to ratify the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages and to recognise Catalan within its territory.

GALICIAN LANGUAGE RIGHTS WATCH SET UP

April 2006 – The Galician Language Rights Watch has been presented in Santiago on April 1. This new institution has been promoted by judges, lawyers, sociolinguists, university professors and law professionals in view of “the dramatic situation the Galician language goes through and the abuses and the violation of rights its speakers undergo on a daily bases”.

In the presentation ceremony a founding manifesto and a warning document addressed to the administrations and society in general containing urgent measures for 2006 were read. Among other targets, the manifesto proposes to issue and disseminate a yearly report examining the sociolinguistic situation in Galicia in which discrimination and infringements suffered by Galician-speakers are reported; to verify and demand the public administrations to observe the law on language issues and to study the public funding policies and its results. The Galician Language Rights Watch warned about the loss of Galician-speakers amongst the youngest generations, a situation considered reversible in spite of everything. For 2006 it proposes to urgently implement some of the measures established in the General Plan of Galician Language Normalization approved in 2004 such as those aiming at ensuring 33% of use of Galician in pre-school education and 50% in primary, secondary and high school education.

The Galician Language Rights Watch also considers that public funding of projects, institutions and companies should effectively increase and boost the visibility of the language, so it would be recommendable to carry out all necessary follow-up and control of the recipient’s progresses. As regards the field of justice, the founders ask to translate all computer management programs and the application forms of everyday use. They also stated their opinion on mass media by demanding TV and radio stations to carry out the commitment of increasing the broadcasting in Galician as established in the General Plan of Galician Language Normalization.

Last but not least, the Galician Language Rights Watch will monitor the application of the international treaties related to the rights of Galician-speakers such as the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages and the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.

Related links...
General Plan of Galician Language Normalization (summary)
Mesa Pola Normalización Lingüística
The Network of European Language Planning Boards

THE GOVERNMENT OF ANDORRA TAKES MEASURES AGAINST DECLINING USE OF CATALAN

April 2006 – Andorra will set up a plan to stop the declining use of Catalan. This is the response by the Andorran government to the sociolinguistic survey issued at the end of March, which was carried out in 2004 and whose figures have been compared to those resulting from surveys made in 1995 and 1999 in order to have knowledge of the situation of the Catalan language and its position amongst other languages spoken in the Principality. The evaluation of the data will help experts to establish the general guidelines to improve the current situation of the historic language of the country, which is, paradoxically, the only official language of the state according to article 2.1 of the Constitution of 1993.

The study examines the level of knowledge of the main languages spoken in Andorra and concludes that Spanish is the language with highest levels of command. The survey also indicates that the levels of understanding and reading competences in Catalan are good, but that level decreases in speaking and writing. Spanish has become the most widely spoken language in Andorra in the last years despite the growing population with Andorran nationality and the Portuguese immigration, whereas Catalan has lost ground as a mother tongue (5.2 % less than figures of 1999). The study also reveals the increasing percentage of Portuguese as a mother tongue due to the immigration flow.

The results of the study show a decline in the use of Catalan and an increase in the use of other languages, especially Spanish, caused mainly by the rise of non-Catalan-speaking immigrants, as many of them adopt Spanish as the alternative to their mother tongue.

The linguistic behaviour of the population of Andorra has rapidly changed and is less favourable to the use of Catalan in private and informal spheres, even though Catalan prevails in formal and institutional contexts. In order to stop this tendency, the government of Andorra has decided to set up a national language welcome plan for the next three years, which includes the promotion of the language amongst the youngest generations through cinema in Catalan.

Related links...
Language Policy Board of Andorra (in Catalan)
Constitution of Andorra
Law on Official Language Use Planning, 16th December, 1999

MERCATOR LEGISLATION SUPPORTS A NEW WELSH LANGUAGE ACT

March 2006 - Mercator Legislation participated the 24th and 25th March in a the General Annual Meeting of the Welsh group of pressure Cymdeithas yr Iaith in Aberystwyth.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg is campaigning for a New Welsh Language Act for Wales, a measure that would give Welsh official status and secure basic language rights for the people of Wales. This call has moved to the centre of the political agenda due to the Assembly Government's intention to abolish the Welsh Language Board.

The importance of legislation in revitalizing a minority language was underlined at the annual general meeting of Cymdeithas yr Iaith in Aberystwyth in March 25th. Guest speaker Alexia Bos Sole from Mercator Legislation in Barcelona led a session entitled Language Legislation Making a Difference, The Catalan Experience.

Mercator Legislation spoke about the importance of concepts such as official status and language rights, concepts that have proved a basis for language policy and legislation for over two decades. MOreover, Mercator Legislation noted that securing strong status and rights are essential in order to facilitate wider use of a minority language.

Such arguments provided further support for Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's ongoing and growing campaign for a Welsh Language Act.

Along with discussing matters related to the need for a New Welsh Language Act, the annual meeting also heard from Cymdeithas yr Iaith's other campaigns in other fields such as education, housing and planning.

Related links...
Cymdeithas yr Iaith website
Welsh Language Board website
Related article (in Welsh)

THE MERCATOR NETWORK LAUNCHES A NEW WEBSITE

March 2006 - The Mercator Network has launched a new website, located at http://www.mercator-central.org. Mercator is a network of three research and documentation centres specialised in the field of the regional and minority languages of the European Union. The objective is to provide objective information about the minority languages for both majority-language speakers and the minority themselves. The three centers have their own roles consisting of a centre for education at the Fryske Akademy in the Netherlands, a centre for legislation at the CIEMEN Foundation in Barcelona, Catalonia, and a centre for Media at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. As a network, the three centers have launched a website where the individual and common work can be found.

On individual work, each center has their own projects, publications and databases, which can be consulted. But as equally or more important is the common work that Mercator does as a network. For example, the Mercator network has since 2003 organized four international symposia on minority languages, which are intended to be a forum for networking, co-operation and presentation of research on minority languages in the EU. Another important common task of all three centers of the Mercator Network is the monthly publication of a common newsletter where one can be informed of the last news on regional and minority languages, the last publications of the centers, the last bibliography news and the acts the Mercator prepares. In the website one can suscribe to the newsletter and read all the numbers that have been published. The website also offers the latest news on minority languages and the agenda of all three centers. Finally, as the Mercator Network is supported by the European Commision, one can access from the website to all the EU initiatives regarding minority languages. The website exits only in english at the moment, but in the near future will be available in Catalan, Cymraeg, German, French and Frisk.

Related links...
Mercator Network website

UKRAINE'S CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION DOES NOT RECOGNISE CRIMEA TO STAGE A REFERENDUM ON RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

March 2006 – Ukraine’s Central Election Comission has not allowed the Crimean Supreme Council to stage a local consultative referendum on giving Russian the "status of a second state language" in the peninsula. The referendum was to be held on March 26, simultaneously with the parliamentary and local elections.

The Party of Regions led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych collected more than 300,000 signatures in support of this referendum in Crimea and the motion was supported by 53 deputies in the 100-seat Crimean legislature. However, the Ukrainian Justice Ministry then said that Crimean Peninsula's plans to hold a referendum violated national law, since giving state status to a language belongs to the so-called constitutional-system issues in Ukraine and cannot be resolved locally, but requires a nationwide plebiscite. The Crimean Prosecutor's Office has immediately said it will appeal against the parliamentary resolution on the referendum.

The Crimean legislature recommended in February that the commissions for the March 26 parliamentary and local elections serve as the referendum commissions at the same time. The chairman of the Ukraine’s Central Election Comission, Yaroslav Davydovych, told journalists on March 7 that referendum commissions cannot work at the same locations as the parliamentary and local election commissions during the March 26 vote. In particular, Davydovych stressed that the law bans members of local election commissions from simultaneously performing the duties of members of referendum commissions.

Related links...
Constitution of Ukraine
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
Related news

CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL AND MINORITY LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION SYSTEMS

March 2006 – The European Commission is organising a conference to encourage co-operation and networking on issues affecting regional and minority languages in education and training systems. The conference, which will take place in Brussels at the Centre Broschette on April 27-28, is programmed in the context of the Commission’s communication “Promoting language learning and language diversity – An Action Plan 2004-2006”.

According to the Commission language policies, regional and minority languages are an important element of the European cultural heritage, so it is essential to keep them alive to ensure that their transmission through the education and training systems adopts the best practices available in Europe. The focus of the conference will therefore be on practical recommendations in terms of illustrations of good practice covering, for example, issues referring to bilingual and multilingual education, teacher training and transmission within families, so it will not address whatsoever policy issues with reference to the status of these languages.

Ten thematic workshops will discuss global issues on the basis of examples of good practice from specific regional or minority languages: transmission within families, integration through education, through bilingualism to multilingualism, the effectiveness of bilingual education, teacher-training for regional and minority languages, language awareness and linguistic diversity, ICT in multilingual education, interaction in the classroom, education through the medium of a minority language and lifelong language learning. The more general objective of the conference is to situate regional and minority languages in the context of current Commission policy on multilingualism, which aims at encouraging language learning and promoting linguistic diversity in society, promoting a healthy multilingual economy and addressing citizens in their own languages.

Related links...
Provisional programme
Action Plan 2004-2006
Commission Communication "A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism”

BILINGUAL SIGN CONTROVERSY IN CARINTHIA

March 2006 - Carinthia, an Austrian state with an important Slovenian minority, has been suffering for the past months a bilingual sign controversy, caused by the lack of bilingual signs (German-Slovenian). According to the law they should be put in places where the Slovenian minority reaches 25 % of the population. A sentence by the Austrian Constitutional Court on this matter giving the Carinthian government until next June to erect bilingual signs in Bleiburg/Pliberk and recommending to reduce the threshold to 10% of the population has provoked the opposition of Governor Jorg Haider.

This controversy is not new. In 1955 the Austrian State Treaty came into force, declaring in its article 7 that the Slovenian minority had the right to have bilingual signs in southern Carinthia. This produced a bilingual sign law in 1972, which established that approximately 200 bilingual signs had to be erected. However, the German majority of Carinthia disagreed and this led to which has been known as the “bilingual sign storm” (“Ortstafelsturm”), with violent removal of the bilingual signs and the resignation of the then Governor Hans Sima.

Because of this, a Minority law was enacted in 1976, which declared in its article 2.2 that bilingual signs had to be put up only where 25% of the total population belonged to a minority. In Carinthia, it meant that 91 bilingual signs were needed, but until today only 77 signs have been put up. Since then, it seemed that the situation had been calm, but a sentence by the Austrian Constitutional Court has brought the controversy into the spotlight again. The lawyer Rudolf Vouk was given a traffic fine as he drove knowingly too fast through a Carinthian city (St. Kanzian) which didn’t have bilingual signs. The case arrived to the Constitutional Court because Vouk claimed that the lack of bilingual signs in St. Kanzian was anticonstitutional. The Court ruled then that the 25% established in the Minority law was too high and reduced it to 10%, thus increasing the number of bilingual signs needed.

This has created a strong opposition by Governor Haider and its party BZÖ (“Bündnis Zukunft Österreich”). Haider has criticised Constitutional Court members for their decision numerous times, and has tried to split the population with a census and now with an opinion poll.

Related links...
Austrian State Treaty of 1955 (in French)
Minority Law of 1976 (in French)
Euromosaic: Slovenian in Austria

OCCITAN, MOTHER LANGUAGE OF THE OLYMPIC VALLEYS

March 2006 - The province of Turin presented the project “Occitan: Olympic language” coordinated by the region of Piedmont’s Council of Culture to promote the linguistic heritage of the minorities living in the area where the Winter Olympic Games have been held. The project came as the result of a call made in 2001 by Occitan cultural and language associations of the province to stimulate the visibility and the use of Occitan during the celebration of the sport event.

Occitan is spoken in Italy, mainly in fifteen alpine valleys in the Piedmontese provinces of Turin. It is never used by central and regional administrative bodies, although it is protected according to the Linguistic Protection Act 482/99.

The project included the opening of four offices under the name “Offices for the mother tongue of the Olympic Valleys: Occitan, Franco-Provencal and French” in Turin, Sestriere, Oulx and Gaglione with the aim of informing about the culture and the language of the minorities. A publication in four languages entitled Occitan, mother tongue of the Olympic Valleys, was issued for this purpose. The project also includes a series of cultural events related to language and sport scheduled for the Cultural Olympiad, such as exhibitions, music concerts, theatre, dancing parties, etc.

The representative of the main Occitan organization working for the language in the Occitan-speaking valleys of Italy, Chambra d’Oc, said that they did not achieved all they wished, but with the work of Valter Giuliano from the province of Turin and thanks to the councilor for the Mountain Affairs, Bruna Sibille, and other public bodies they assured 161.00 € for the program. He stated that “for the morale of the minority, too used to defeats, this seems a pretty good thing.”

Related links...
Linguistic Protection Act 482/99
Chambra d’Oc
Press release of the Province of Torino (in Italian)

GYÖRGY FRUNDA, CENSURED BY ROMANIAN POLITICIANS FOR HIS TASK IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

February 2006 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted last January a recommendation on the concept of nation to be approved by the Council of Ministers. The recommendation was based on a proposal presented by György Frunda, leader of the Romanian delegation in the PACE and member of the Romanian parliament representing PAHR, the party of the Hungarian minority in coalition on government.

The Assembly recommended the Committee of Ministers to invite the member states not yet having done so to sign and ratify the Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities and the European Charter for regional or minority languages, among other legal instruments. According to the recommendation, the members of the Council of Europe should foster in their internal instruments the recognition of the cultural rights of the minorities, take the appropriate measures in order to make sure that the member states reject any attempt to promote the ethnic purity of the state or to organise the territory and the administration of the state on an ethnic basis and bring into line their constitutions with the contemporary democratic European standards which call on each state to integrate all its citizens, irrespective of their ethno-cultural background.

The adoption of such a recommendation by the PACE has sparked controversy among the Romanian politicians, most of whom have sided against György Frunda.

Mircea Geoana, leader of the opposition group, the Social Democrat Party (PSD), has declared that the concept of nation put forward by Frunda is against the Romanian constitution and consequently Frunda should be dismissed as the head of the Romanian delegation. Nicolae Popa, vice-president of the Conservative Party, has provoked controversy with his statement that Frunda is dangerous for Romanian national interests and his suggestion that the PAHR MP should leave the country and settle in Hungary.

The recommendations, though, are not legally binding in Romania until the Council of Ministers approves them.

Related links...
Conclusions of the debate on the concept of nation
PACE recommendations to the Committee of Ministers
Related news (Mercator)

NATIVIDAD MUTUMBAJOY AWARDED THE 2006 INTERNATIONAL LINGUAPAX PRIZE

February 2006 – Natividad Mutumbajoy has been awarded the International Linguapax prize on February 20th by Linguapax Institute. The Institute, a non-governmental organisation with its headquarters in Barcelona, was created in 2001 with the objective of giving continuity to a series of meetings organized by UNESCO from 1987 on. Among other activities, it aims at fostering linguistic rights as individual and collective rights, carrying out research on language policies, assisting the language policy makers of state or regional governments and connecting multilingualism with the culture of peace.

The prize is awarded every year by the Linguapax Institute to linguists, researchers, professors and members of the civil society in acknowledgement of their task in favour of linguistic diversity and multilingual education. Natividad Mutumbajoy is an activist of the Ingano people in Colombia and has worked jointly with the Tanda Chiridu Ingakuna Indigenous Association for the revival of Inga culture through education programmes in Yachaicury school and the setting up of a radio station broadcasting in Inga language.

As usual the identity of the winner has been disclosed on occasion of the International Mother Language Day, which was devoted to the topic of languages and cyberspace. During the same awarding ceremony the Linguapax Institute proposed a roundtable on good practices of language revitalization in different continents and the screening of the film “Voices of the World”.

Related links...
Linguapax Institute
International Mother Language Day
General information on Ingano people

LAW ON LANGUAGES, A KEY ISSUE IN MACEDONIA

February 2006 – The law on languages in Macedonia has not yet been passed despite being on the political agenda for a long time. According to several political analysts, Macedonia’s ruling Social Democrats are seeking to delay the adoption of a new law on the use of the Albanian language, out of fears that it could bring about their defeat in the country’s next elections.

Approximately 700,000 Albanians are living in Macedonia. They are the second largest population group in the country, after the Slavs-Macedonians. Before Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia in 1944, western Macedonia –where most of the Albanians live- was part of Albania.

The language act is one of the issues of concern in the report issued this month by the Project on Ethnic Relations (PER), an organisation dedicated to preventing ethnic conflict in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. The report shows the results of the “Mavrovo Process”, a series of roundtables that have provided the Macedonian political elite with the only venue apart from the parliament where all political parties can meet and discuss the most pressing issues and concerns of the day. The process began in 2003 as a way to improve communication over the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, whose signing in 2001 put an end to the conflict in the country and resulted in a package of constitutional amendments designed to boost the rights of the country’s large Albanian minority.

According to the PER report, representatives of opposition parties taking part in the Mavrovo Process focused on two main issues in their criticism of the government’s policies: judicial reform and the law on languages. As regards the latter, a leader of an ethnic Albanian opposition party asserted that the absence of a new law on languages demonstrates that the Ohrid Framework Agreement is not being implemented. However, the Macedonian parties in power have declared that no extra concessions will be made beyond those foreseen at Ohrid, which concern use of Albanian in local government alone. Use of the Albanian language is currently regulated by nine separate laws. Its role in the education system, for instance, is governed by the Laws on Primary, Secondary and Higher Education, and its use at municipality-level is regulated by the Law on Local Government.

The government tried to adopt a new law on languages last June that did not satisfy the junior partners in government, the Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, which have been proposing to establish Albanian as an official language throughout Macedonia. Among other things the report summarizes the different political positions on the issue and stresses on the fact that it has not yet been solved.

THE DANISH MINORITY IN GERMANY CELEBRATES THE LANGUAGE DAY

February 2006 – February 9th was the Danish language day in the German region of Sonderjylland/Schleswig. This region bordering Denmark is nowadays a part of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, and has been for the past centuries an object of dispute between the two countries. It suffered two wars during the XIX century, which resulted in the cession of the territory of Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia. However, after the First World War, in 1920, a referendum was held in the northern region of Schleswig and the territory rejoined Denmark, while the southern part remained in Germany. In 1955 the so-called Bonn and Copenhagen Declarations were signed, the main document that aims at protecting the rights of the Danish minority in Germany and the German minority in Denmark.

During the celebration of the Danish language day, Anke Spoorendonk, president of the parliamentary group SSW (Südschleswigsche Wählerverband) explained that the command of the German and Danish languages is a requisite so that the people of the region can work and live closer together, and that the lack of knowledge of Danish in the German side is what prevents a bigger and more transcendent development across borders. According to Sporrendonk, for German people the knowledge of the Danish language is not only an open door to the job market in Denmark, but also the key to a closer work with the northern neighbours and to a cultural understanding between the German majority and the Danish minority.”

The president of the Schleswig-Holstein Green Party, Anne Lütkes, explained that the language is an essential element for an understanding between both communities, more work mobility and economic integration. As the number of German Danish-speakers is lower than that of Danish German-speakers, Lütkes proposed to promote the teaching of Danish in the regional schools as part of their curriculum. The president of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament, Martin Kayenburg, also attended some of the events commemorating the Danish language day.

Related links...
1955 Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations
Euromosaic: Danish in Germany
University of Laval’s information on Schleswig-Holstein (in French)

CATALAN NOW REQUISITE FOR NEW UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS

February 2006 - The Government of Catalonia is preparing a decree that, if approved, will affect all tenured and contracted professors, both permanent and temporary, at Catalan universities--with an exception for visiting professors and the like. The decree expands on Article 6.4 of the Universities Act of Catalonia, which establishes the obligation to know the two official languages of Catalonia and will affect, without applying retroactively, to international professors as well as to Spanish citizens, according to the Secretary of the Inter-University Council of Catalonia, Josep Castells.

The Inter-University Council, the coordinating body of Catalonia’s university system responsible for advising the Catalan government on university issues, has announced its support for the draft of the decree currently awaiting approval from the Legal Council Commission, which is responsible for advising the government and negotiating with workers' unions.

Once the decree is approved, all university professors, tenured and contracted staff--both temporary and permanent--will need to be accredited, through the general exam offered by the Catalan universities, as having a sufficient level of Catalan equivalent to Level C on the scale of the Secretary of Linguistic Policy, the body responsible for the application of the linguistic legislation derived from Article 3 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia and ensure the application of established linguistic policies by the Spanish Government.

A period of one year will be given to achieve the required level of Catalan, which will need to be accredited with either a certificate from the Secretary of Linguistic Policy, a secondary school diploma (BUP) from 1992 onward or a LOGSE secondary school diploma, having been awarded in Catalonia.

Although accreditation of knowledge of the Catalan language will be required, professors will be able to use either of the two official languages both in the classroom and in writing.

Related links...
Act of 1998 on linguistic policy
Universities Act of Catalonia (in Catalan)
Inter-University Council of Catalonia

THE MARI MINORITY FACES CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC ASSIMILATION IN RUSSIA

February 2006 – The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Moscow Helsinki Group (MGH) issued on 1st of February a report on the human rights situation of the Mary minority of the Republic of Mari-El, one of Russia’s so-called ethnic regions. Maris are a national group belonging to the Finno-Ugric people and constitute less than a half the population of the Republic.

According to the report, democracy and freedom of expression have come under growing attack over the last few years and the social acceptance of the Mari language, despite being an official state language, has decreased in recent years. The report states that “attempts to use Mari in public contexts are now sometimes met with outright hostility”. This fact comes as the result of a Soviet era trend: the Mari language increasingly became a domestic language with little visibility in public life, while Russian consistently gained ground. The report also points out that “lack of resources makes it impossible to effectively enforce Mari as an official language in the public sector” and that “the fact that public officials are not required to have any knowledge of Mari, combined with the fact that ethnic Mari are underrepresented in public administration, creates a major obstacle to the provision of public services in the titular language”.

The report includes a list of recommendations in which IHF and MGH advise the authorities of the Russian Federation and Mari-El to take adequate measures to enforce the protection and development of minority languages and cultures and to intensify their efforts to facilitate practical enforcement of the official status of the Mari language. They should also encourage active use of minority languages in different forms of media and give particular consideration to the importance of promoting, maintaining and improving the availability of newspapers, magazines, and TV and radio broadcasts in minority languages when elaborating and implementing public media policies.

Finno-Ugric minorities of Russia have been given international attention in recent years, and the situation of the Mari and other Finno-Ugric groups of Russia has repeatedly been featured on the agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A report on this subject is currently being prepared by Ms. Saks, one of its members. The European Parliament has also been active with respect to the Finno-Ugric minorities of Russia and in a resolution adopted in May 2005 it deplored “violations of human rights and democracy” in Mari.

WELSH LANGUAGE BOARD ISSUES A STATEMENT ON THE LEGISLATIVE POSITION OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE

January 2006 - The members of the Welsh Language Board published a position statement on the legislative situation of the Welsh Language. The paper was prepared as part of the Board’s statutory functions and has been presented to First Minister for the Welsh Assembly Government, and to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Speaking on behalf of the Board members, the Chair, Meri Huws, said, “The proposed incorporation of the Board’s functions into the Welsh Assembly Government will herald a significant change in the legislative arrangements that support the Welsh language. This, jointly with the proposed changes in the Government of Wales Bill extends a natural opportunity for us to consider the form and content of the legislation that supports Welsh”.

The paper considers the following issues: language rights; Welsh in the workplace; the scope of the 1993 Act; normalising the use of Welsh; weaknesses in the current legislation; independent regulation; the role of the National Assembly; and transitional arrangements in light of the Board’s incorporation.

Moreover, the paper specifically states that there is a need to review the existing legislation. According to the Board, new measures should be developed in relation to language rights, and new legislation aiming at normalising the use of Welsh should be put in place. The text also specifies that the legislation affecting the language should primarily be the responsibility of the National Assembly for Wales (the National Assembly), and that an independent regulator for the Welsh Language should be established, with statutory powers and a clearly defined role.

More information can be found at: http://www.welsh-language-board.org.uk/download.php/pID=60737.9

Related links...
Welsh Language Board
Welsh Language Act (1993)
Publication: A Strategy for the Welsh Language

CoE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY DEBATES ON THE CONCEPT OF ‘NATION’

January 2006 - “Everyone should be free to define themselves as a member of a cultural “nation”, irrespective of their citizenship”, the CoE Parliamentary Assembly said following a debate on “the concept of nation”, based on a report by the Romanian MP György Frunda.

During the debate held in Strasbourg the 26th January, the Assembly debated on the concept of ‘nation’ and admitted that historically this notion had been often used demagogically to put people against people and nations against nations and to make citizens of the same countries citizens of the first or second degree. After the debate, the Assembly approved a recommendation for the Committee of Ministers.

In the text of the recommendation, the Assembly invited the member states not yet having done so to sign and ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as well as the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the European Charter of Local Self-government, which are “fundamental instruments for maintaining the national identity of national minorities or communities, and step up its efforts in this respect”. The recommendation also urged member states to promote in their national legislation the recognition of the cultural rights of minorities, inter alia on the basis of Recommendation 43 (1998) on territorial autonomy and national minorities and Recommendation 70 (1999) on local law/special status of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

The Assembly concluded that, based upon its Recommendation 1623 (2003) on rights of national minorities, the Committee of Ministers should "take the necessary measures to continue co-operation with the European Union, with a view to achieving common policies in the field of the protection of national minorities”.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE ON ROM

January 2006 – A new website dedicated to the Roma has been launched recently by the European Commission. The website, managed by the Anti-discrimination Unit in Directorate-General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, on behalf of the Inter-Service Group on Roma, is aimed at anyone interested in Roma affairs, from individuals to non-governmental organizations and government bodies.

Even though it is acknowledged that much of the responsibility for addressing the challenges of discrimination and exclusion the Roma people suffer lies at national, regional and local levels, the EU has a range of policies and programmes which can help to support these efforts. Given the broad nature of these challenges, EU support is also provided across a broad range of policy areas and activities. This website gives links to the most important among these, although it does not claim to be exhaustive. Thus, within the European Commission, an Inter-Service Group – bringing together 14 different departments and chaired by the Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG – coordinates the different policies and programmes tackling Roma issues. Users can access a range of information on how to promote social inclusion and combat discrimination against Roma. The site also briefs on how to get funding to carry away these projects and offers the latest news on the issue.

The site has been put up approximately a month before the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) Roundtable with the International Roma Women Network.

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PREVENTS MP FROM USING CATALAN

January 2006 – Manuel Antonio dos Santos, vice-president of the European Parliament, prevented Catalan MP Bernat Joan from speaking in Catalan in the last plenary session. Addressing the assembly in his language has been his usual way to protest against the exclusion of non-state languages in the legislative body, and Joan has been reprimanded several times for contravening the in-house language regulations. On this occasion, though, the controversy with the vice-president was particularly significant as the board of the Parliament had postponed two days before and for the third time the decision on the proposal regarding the use of Catalan, Galician and Basque in this European institution.

As we informed last month, the Spanish minister for foreign affairs and co-operation, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, sent a proposal to reach an agreement with the European Parliament regarding the manner in which letters from citizens written in those languages could be received and send out and the way oral interventions in the plenary sessions could be organized. The European Parliament’s ok was expected before the end of last year, but a reply remains to be given. Monday this week the members of the board addressed the issue again, but the proposal was postponed once more.

It seems that the adjournment is due to the contents of a report drafted by the Parliament secretariat, which highlights the technical difficulties the inclusion of Catalan, Galician and Basque would involve after the addition of 9 languages following the EU enlargement. It also underlines that the use of the co-official languages of Spain in the European Parliament would be an unsustainable precedent since other states could eventually apply for the same rights.

Bernat Joan disagrees with the official version the report provides, and believes that the actual reason is the lack of political will to implement language rights. According to him, “it would just require from the deputies a translation for the interpreters of the speech in a bridge language”.

Related links...
Related news (Eurolang)
The rules governing the languages of the European Union: which languages and to what extent?
Related news (Eurolang)

EXPOLANGUES 24th EDITION TO BE HELD IN PARIS

January 2006 - The international exhibition of foreign languages and cultures Expolangues will take place in Paris from 18th to 21st of January. This is the 24th edition of the fair, which has as its main objective to promote languages and cultures, develop international communication and defence multilingualism.

In consistency with the organizers’ policy of inviting a state instead of welcoming languages or cultures, this year the guest of honour is Germany. However, about sixty languages from twenty different countries will also be represented in more than 200 stalls. Publishers, language schools, programmers of language study holidays, interpreters and other institutions coming from countries with dominant languages will be broadly represented, and the entire programme of conferences scheduled will be devoted to matters of their interest. In spite of this, exhibitors of minoritised and minority languages will be also present in Paris. Several institutions such as Unioun Prouvençalo representing Occitan, Ofis ar Brezhoneg for Breton, Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics and Institut Ramon Llull for Catalan, the Basque government, the language policy board of the Galician government, etc. have confirmed their attendance. Besides, the programmers have included introductory sessions in some least taught languages such as Basque, Welsh, Galician, Catalan, Romanian and Lithuanian in the “Language Kiosc” section.

Expolangues, with more than 20,000 visitors and 11.000 participants, has become a leading language-sector exhibition in the last years.

Related links...
Expolangues
Ofis ar Brezhoneg (Breton Language Board)
Unioun Prouvençalo (in French)

A DRAFT BILL PROPOSES MAKING FRIULAN COMPULSORY

January 2006- Lega Nord’s regional councillors Claudio Violino, Alessandra Guerra, Massimo Franz and Fulvio Follegot have drafted a regional bill for the teaching of Friulan language in school. Friulan, a Rhaeto-Romance variety related to Ladin in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Romansh in Switzerland, spoken by about half a million people living in the three Friulian provinces of Udine/Udin, Pordenone/Pordenon and Gorizia/Gurize, is one of the twelve languages recognised and protected by Act 482/1999.

Act 482/1999 established the restricted introduction of Friulan in the education system, public offices, local government, courts, mass media, place names and personal names. However, the promoters of the proposal believe that the situation of Friulan in school is still precarious, especially on account of deficient funding and lack of skilled teaching staff and teaching material. In fact, regulations for the application of the Act did not come into force until 2001, and six years after its approval the law has not been entirely implemented. Lack of coordination and official guidelines have made the teaching of Friulan circumstantial and a matter of will.

The aim of the proposed law is to provide the language with the appropriate administrative arrangements, eradicate precariety and the provisional situation the teaching of the language undergoes and enter a period of consolidation throughout the Friulan territory. To do so, the proposal foresees going a step further and making Friulan compulsory in school, which improve on the provisions of Act 482/1999 that established that Friulan could be taught only with the parents’ consent. It also foresees the education in Friulan through other subjects instead of learning the language on a one-hour a week basis. The proposal establishes the setting up of a permanent Commission in charge of organizing appropriate training for language staff and well-designed programmes of study, and sets out a plan to improve the funding to implement the law.

CoE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS ADOPTS CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS IN RESPECT OF LIECHTENSTEIN AND MOLDOVA

December 2005 - The Committee of Ministers adopted resolutions on how Liechtenstein and Moldova have put to practice the principles contained in the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. These resolutions contain conclusions and recommendations which are largely based on the Opinions of the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, highlighting a number of issues on which these countries are expected to take further measures to support their national minorities.

In accordance with the conclusions of the CoE, building on the Law on National Minorities of 2001, Moldova has sought to improve and extend the relevant legal framework and made practical efforts to support national minorities in the fields of culture and education. Dialogue with persons belonging to national minorities continued and the Bureau of Interethnic Relations has played a particularly positive role in this context. National minorities were consulted and involved in the processes, particularly concerning completed or pending changes in the Moldovan legislation.

However, the question of Transnistria remains a serious concern, especially since this conflict affects a great many developments, political and others, of importance to the whole population of Moldova, and to the implementation of the principles of the Framework Convention. Aside from the Transnistria question, efforts have been made in most of the sectors relevant to the implementation of the Framework Convention in Moldova. However, the implementation of the guarantees provided by legislation on the protection of national minorities remains a problem. The difficulties are due to insufficient monitoring of the situation by the authorities, inadequate resources and, in some cases, a lack of political will, particularly at local level.

The CoE outlined in its report that the action taken to support preservation and promotion of the cultures, languages and traditions of national minorities still falls short of expectations of representatives of national minorities.

As for Liechtenstein, the CoE admits that this country has taken steps to improve the implementation of the Framework Convention following the adoption of the first Opinion of the Advisory Committee in November 2000 and the Committee of Ministers' Resolution in November 2001. New initiatives have been launched, including the creation of the Office for the Equality of Opportunities.

The CoE report stressed the importance that the authorities continue their efforts to strengthen the protection against discrimination, in particular, in relation to non-nationals who do not share the language, culture or religion of the majority population.

List of Resolutions (Moldova and Liechtenstein):
List of declarations made with respect to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

THE SECOND OPINION OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON SLOVENIA AND THE RECOMMENDATIONS ON MINORITY PROTECTION IN DENMARK AND HUNGARY MADE PUBLIC

December 2005 - The opinion of the Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on measures taken in this field by Slovenia has been made public at the country's initiative. The Advisory Committee of 18 independent experts drew up the opinion on the basis of the state report and other materials and after visiting Slovenia. The opinion will soon be examined by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, which will then adopt its conclusions and possible recommendations.

The Committee stands out as positive developments the steps Slovenia has made to improve the social and economic situation of the Roma and praises the mutual understanding characterising relations between minority groups and the majority. The situation of non-Slovenes from former Yugoslavia, though, raises substantial problems in terms of access to social and economic rights. Another source of concern is that there are still problems in the implementation of the legislation relating to protection of the linguistic rights of the Italian and Hungarian minorities in the “ethnically mixed areas”.

As regards Denmark and Hungary, the Committee of Ministers has adopted resolutions on the protection of national minorities in these countries. The recommendations for Denmark include the need to “examine how further support can be provided to local radio and televisions broadcasting for the German minority” and “how to better reflect the culture, history, language and religion of persons belonging to the German minority and other ethnic and religious groups in the curriculum and textbooks”, as well as to “find alternative solutions for the Roma children who remain in a separate Roma class in order to guarantee equal education”. On the other hand, the Committee of Ministers recommends Hungary to “define the geographical areas in which the use of minority languages in relations with the administrative authorities could be more actively encouraged and pursue efforts to employ officials who can speak minority languages”. It also encourages the Hungarian government to make steps towards a bilingual teaching for minorities.

CITIZENS CAN ADDRESS THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS IN GALICIAN, BASQUE AND CATALAN WITH RESTRICTIONS

December 2005 – The Spanish minister for foreign affairs and co-operation, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, and the current president of the EU Council , Jack Straw, signed an administrative arrangement in Brussels in order to allow the use in the Council of languages other than Castilian (Spanish) that are recognised in the Spanish state. The arrangement comes as a consequence of an intense campaign in favour of the official status of Catalan in Europe launched by the civil society and several political parties in Catalonia and as a result of the Council conclusions of 13 June 2005 in which the 25 member states gave permission to Spain for negotiations with European institutions to include the use of Galician, Basque and Catalan.

The arrangement allows to use those languages in the Committee of the Regions, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. As regards the Committee of the Regions, Catalan, Basque and Galician could be heard in the plenary session of 17 November as they were used by the respective representatives of the Valencian Country, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Galicia and Basque Country. As in other European bodies, Moratinos recently sent a proposal to reach an agreement with the European Parliament. The text deals with the manner in which letters from citizens written in those languages can be received and send out and the way oral interventions in the plenary sessions can be organized. The European Parliament have not yet sent a reply, but it seems that there will be an answer on the 23rd of this month. The arrangement also provides for the translation of the legislative records adopted by the Council and the Parliament to those languages and establishes the possibility to address the institutions in the co-official languages of the state.

In spite of the use of the so-called regional languages in the European institutions, professors of law, NGO for the promotion of Catalan and political parties have reminded that there has been an advancement but the progress is not satisfactory. They point out that Catalan has not been granted the official status -not even the status of treaty language- because the Spanish government failed to fulfil the promise of adding it in the article IV-448 of the European Constitution. Besides that, the agreements are only administrative arrangements, not juridical ones, negotiated with each European institution, and 7 weeks notice must be given before oral interventions. Furthermore, they claim that the translating body to and from these languages will be paid by the state and will be external to the European institutions, which means that these do not hold any responsibility whatsoever. In conclusion, they believe that it is a far too little recognition, among other reasons because, even though some linguistic rights are provided, these are indirect and external, that is to say, in relation to the state under which they are impounded but not in relation to the Union.

ONE MILLION EURO AVAILABLE TO HELP PROMOTE THE IRISH LANGUAGE IN THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY

December 2005 – The Irish Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív has announced that he will provide 1 million euros to help groups and organisations to promote the Irish language in the business community in cities and counties throughout Ireland. The scheme will be funded by means of a subfund of Ciste na Gaeilge, which grants aids for language organisations such as Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and other groups functioning principally outside the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking areas, and is financed from proceeds of the National Lotery.

This fund will be valued at 1 million € over a three-year period and a further 250,000 € will be added by means of joint funding. In order to apply, a group or organisation must first arrange joint funding and partnership with Local Government and/or with the chamber of commerce. Departmental funding will be based on a 3:1 ratio, that is, three euros provided by the department and one euro from local government or the chamber of commerce, or indeed one euro jointly by local government and the chamber of commerce. It has been established that a maximum funding of 500,000 € may be made available to any one organisation over a three-year period. To apply, a group must provide a business plan to include specific targets relating to the promotion of Irish and a clear exposition as to how these targets will be met.

The Minister said that he is “hopeful that this fund will encourage chambers of commerce and local authorities to enter into a fruitful partnership with groups focused on promoting the Irish Language in their local area. It is very obvious that many business people have already a very positive attitude towards the Irish language and this will provide a very solid foundation to this scheme. We now have an opportunity to build on this foundation".

The news have been made public amidst a hot national debate on the usefulness of the Irish language in society, and more particularly, on the teaching of Irish. Just recently, the opposition leader Enda Kenny sparked controversy by arguing that Irish should be made an optional subject for Leaving Cerificate pupils at secondary school.

Related links...
Website of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs
Official Languages Act of Ireland 2003

EU SUPPORT FOR THE ROMANIAN BILL ON NATIONAL MINORITIES (Eurolang)

The European Union has urged Romania to adopt the Bill on the statute of national minorities as a condition of Romania’s EU entry. The Romanian Government promised this would happen before January and representatives of Romania’s largest ethnic minority, the Hungarians, expect this no later than March. Meanwhile, the Romanian opposition, as well as voices within the ruling coalition, are opposed to the legislation as well as wanting to exclude cultural autonomy from it.

The draft bill, initiated by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ, UDMR) is part of the Government’s programme. It establishes cultural autonomy for ethnic minorities based on language, educational, cultural and religious rights to be supervised by minority autonomy councils.

However, the Senate, the upper House of the Romanian Parliament where the ruling coalition have a fragile majority, excluded the clause on cultural autonomy from the bill and then rejected it as a whole.

The European Parliament (EP) Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a report based on a draft by French Socialist MEP Pierre Moscovici on Romania’s preparedness for EU accession. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said at the debate on the report that Romania was supposed to adopt the Bill on national minorities in order to obtain a more favourable report in April.

At the initiative of Hungarian MEPs Csaba Tabajdi, István Szent-Iványi, Committee Vice-President Kinga Gál, Gábor Harangozó, György Schöpflin and Alexandra Dobolyi, as well as Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Michl Ebner, the report was amended with recommendations for Romania to adopt the Bill and to improve the situation of ethnic minorities in the fields of mother tongue education, restitution of properties and amending the electoral law.

Related links...
European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee report (text in French)
RMDSZ, the minority law:
Related article

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION CALLS FOR ACTION TO PROMOTE LANGUAGES AND LAUNCHES A NEW WEB PORTAL (Eurolang)

November 2005 - The European Commission adopted its first ever Communication on the issue of multilingualism and linguistic diversity under the watchword “the more languages you know, the more of a person you are.” The document explores the various facets of the Commission’s policies in this field and sets out a new framework strategy for multilingualism with proposals for specific actions.

To mark the occasion, a new web portal on languages has been launched on the EU’s interinstitutional website EUROPA, with access in the current 20 official languages. It aims to be an easy point of entry for the general public, the media or students to information about languages from the European Union. The subjects covered range from the Union’s policies to encourage language learning and linguistic diversity, by way of a review of language skills in the Union today, to the rules for the use of the EU's own official languages.

According to Ján Figel, Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism who launched the communication, “languages are what makes us human, and Europe’s linguistic diversity is at the core of its identity”.

The communication sees language knowledge as a desirable life-skill for all EU citizens, and presents the various actions set up by the Commission to promote and develop language skills and linguistic diversity. Through the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes, for example, the Commission puts 30 M€ each year into actions such as training, mobility of students and teachers and funding class exchanges. Moreover, the Commission will be investing more in language-related research into ways of overcoming language barriers through new information and communication technologies, as well as in the field of social and human sciences.

In addition, the Commission are organising a conference on regional or minority languages and education systems in Brussels next year, 27-28 April 2006. Speaking to the press about the usage of regional languages in the Commission Mr Figel underlined that the Commission follows the line of EU Council rulings mentioning the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician, where languages recognised by states will be used. He stated that the Commission is language friendly in practical terms adding "this is our Union, its important we create a respect which is real."

(Source: Eurolang, Davyth Hicks)

Related links...
The new Europa languages’ website
EC communication on multilingualism
Eurobarometer 63.4, September 2005

THE PROPOSAL FOR THE REFORM OF THE STATUTE OF AUTONOMY OF THE VALENCIAN COUNTRY DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE UNITY OF THE CATALAN LANGUAGE

The Constitutional Commission of the Spanish Congress of Deputies is debating the reform of the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Country. The text currently in force, approved in 1982, is to be modified with the support of the Popular Party and the PSOE, the two main Spanish-based political parties.

As regards the legal regulation of the Catalan language spoken in the Valencian Country -traditionally known as Valencian-, the proposal includes two new paragraphs. The first one introduces for the first time the idea that Valencian is the Valencian country’s own language (Article 7), whereas the present text only establishes that “the two official languages of the Autonomous Comunity are Valencian and Castilian”. As to the other novelty, the new draft establishes the right “to receive education on, and in Valencian”, and also prescribes that “theValencian Academy of the Language is the official and normative institution of the Valencian language”. The emphasis on the notion of Valencian as the country’s own language and the lack of any allusion to other Catalan-speaking territories (Balearic Islands, Stripe of Aragon, Catalonia, Andorra and Northern Catalonia) are political measures fostering partition of the Valencian Country from a cultural and linguistic framework whose unity the academic world has always agreed upon. Honorat Ros, member of the Valencian Academy of the Language, proposed on this issue that “in order to overcome useless aversions the new Statute could include a paragraph such as “The Generalitat (Valencian Government) will promote cooperation with other autonomous communities and other territories with the same language to be able to strengthen and enrich the language we share.””

Several associations in favour of the promotion of Valencian-Catalan are of the believe that the reform of the Statute not only deepens the split from those territories but does not put forward any substantial progress. According to Diego Gómez, president of Escola Valenciana-Federació d’Associacions per la Llengua “the immobilism with which the language issue is addressed by the two main political parties is astonishing”, given the fact that the draft still only guarantees the right but not the duty to know the two official languages. As it is now, the "duty to know" still rests with the language of the Spanish state (Article 3, Spanish Constitution). The project of reform currently being discussed in the Constitutional Comission of the Spanish Congress does not includes measures to make sure the workers of the different administrations have knowledge of Valencian-Catalan, nor makes any reference to the fact that the administration, schools and media should be making Valencian prioritary.

UNESCO ADOPTS THE CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF THE DIVERSITY OF CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS

November 2005 - The General Conference of UNESCO, meeting in Paris in October, approved the Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, an international normative instrument that will enter into force three months after its ratification by 30 States. This text reinforces the idea already included in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, unanimously adopted in 2001, that cultural diversity must be considered as a “common heritage of humanity”, and its “defence as an ethical imperative, inseparable from respect for human dignity.”

The Convention seeks to reaffirm the links between culture, development and dialogue and to create an innovative platform for international cultural cooperation; to this end, it reaffirms the sovereign right of States to elaborate cultural policies with a view “to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions” and “to create the conditions for cultures to flourish and to freely interact in a mutually beneficial manner” (Article 1).

At the same time, a series of guiding principles (Article 2) guarantees that all measures aimed at protecting and promoting the diversity of cultural expressions do not hinder respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms “such as freedom of expression, information and communication, as well as the ability of individuals to choose (them)…”. The rights and obligations of Parties (Articles 5 to 11) include several measures and policies aimed at protecting and promoting the diversity of cultural expressions, approaching creativity and all it implies in the context of globalization, where diverse expressions are circulated and made accessible to all via cultural goods and services.

It should be stressed that international promotion and cooperation, especially in the case of developing countries, is at the heart of the Convention (Articles 12 to 19). To this effect, the creation of an International Fund for Cultural Diversity, has been provided for (Article 18). Resources for this Fund will come from voluntary contributions from Parties, funds allocated by UNESCO’s General Conference, and diverse contributions.

The Convention establishes a series of follow-up mechanisms aimed at ensuring efficient implementation of the new instrument. Among these, a non binding mechanism for the settlement of disputes allows, within a strictly cultural perspective, possible divergences of views on the interpretation or application of certain rules or principles relatives to the Convention (Article 25) to be dealt with. The Convention does not include any mechanism for sanctions.

Related links...
Text of the Convention
UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity
Related article in UNESCO website

OSCE MISSION TO SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BACKS THE USE OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN THE COURTS

November 2005 - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest regional security organization, sent a group of experts to Serbia and Montenegro in order to organize a study visit and a workshop on 28 and 29 of October. The aim of this visit was to improve the service of the judiciary system to national minorities by offering training courses to 19 representatives of the courts and public prosecutors offices from Southern Serbia, an area of the country predominantly populated by ethnic Albanian. The workshop, which took place in the Senta Municipal Court, sought to train the above mentioned staff to conduct court proceedings in the language of such minority. In Serbia, there are several municipalities where large ethnic minority communities exist, and the challenge has been to provide the necessary strategies, infrastructure and qualified staff to conduct all aspects of the court proceedings in other languages, even though the Serbian legal framework provides for the conduct of court proceedings in the language of a national minority.

The OSCE mission took as an example several courts throughout the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, as court proceedings there are carried out in Hungarian, the language of the predominant national minority of the region. During these two days the judges and prosecutors from southern Serbia observed their Hungarian-speaking colleagues conducting criminal and civil court proceedings. This provided the background for discussions during which the technical and legal requirements, human rights issues and human resource needs were outlined.

As Stephen Kelley, the Legal Advisor on Judicial Reform of the OSCE put it, “conducting court in the language of a national minority is an important step for Serbia in its effort to build bridges to those communities". He added that "this training course provides the judges and prosecutors responsible for meeting European standards and the legal requirements of Serbian law with the technical knowledge necessary for its implementation."

Representatives from the Supreme Court of Serbia, the Co-ordination Body for South Serbia, the Justice Ministry, and other members of the judiciary also participated in the workshop.

The project forms part of the ongoing efforts of the Mission to support the Co-ordination Body to implement the 2001 peace agreement, aimed at re-integrating the ethnic Albanian community into state institutions.

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S OPINION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES BY ITALY AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC, MADE PUBLIC

November 2005 – The opinion of the Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on measures taken in this field by Italy and the Czech Republic have been made public at the country's initiative on the 25th and 26th of October respectively. The Advisory Committee of 18 independent experts drew up the opinions on the basis of the state report and other materials and after conducting a visit to both countries.

According to the Advisory Committee, Italy and the Czech Republic have made steps to improve the implementation of the Framework Convention since 2002, which have seen positive developments. However, the opinion includes some issues of concern and recommendations, since some shortcomings have been noticed. As regards to Italy, the Committee has reminded that “the implementation of the specific legislation protecting the Slovene minority in the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia has not really started four years after its adoption due to the persisting political, legal and technical disputes over the demarcation of the Law’s territorial scope of application”. It is also concerned about the fact that “there remains a need to develop TV and radio programmes in other minority languages like in Friulan. Legal obligations in this field, which derive from the national legislative framework on minorities, have not been implemented to date. The reception of existing programmes remains impossible in certain provinces with a traditional presence of minorities, such as the Slovenians and the Ladins”. The opinion also stresses “the lack of tangible progress in the integration of the Roma, Sinti and Travellers” and the lack of legal protection at the state level for those communities, which “should be addressed by the authorities so as to enable these persons to better preserve and further develop their identity and culture”.

As to the Czech Republic, the Advisory Committee underlines that “there is still room for improvement in fields such as the use of minority languages in the public sphere, teaching of and in minority languages and participation of national minorities in public affairs, particularly at local level” and that “media access for persons belonging to national minorities and education reflecting their culture and traditions also require increased efforts”. The social exclusion and marginalisation the Roma people suffer should also be dealt with as a matter of priority. The opinion will soon be examined by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, which will then adopt its conclusions and possible recommendations.

Latest news from the Council of Europe regarding minorities also inform that Ukraine has finally deposited the ratification instrument for the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, more than two years after it was ratified by the parliament.

MERCATOR MEDIA HOLDS ITS IV MERCATOR INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON MINORITY LANGUAGES

October 2005 – On 26, 27 and 28 October Mercator Media held in the University of Wales Aberystwyth its IV Symposium on Translation of Culture, Culture of Translation: Languages in Films, Television and Literature. Among other issues, the Symposium dealt with the politics of translation, language transfer and cultural transfer, translation and language planning and minority languages and audiovisual media.

Mercator Media’s Symposium sought contributions to the discussion from those active practitioners and policy-makers in the audiovisual and literary fields (producers, directors, broadcasters, subtitlers and dubbers, scriptwriters, publishers, authors, translators) as well as those concerned with these issues in an academic context.

Thus, the conference counted on the participation of representative researchers of the Catalan language and media, Breton cultural expression and Irish translation and language planners, among others. The symposium dealt specifically with language transfer, which included subtitling and dubbing of both film and television as well as literary translation. From the point of view of minority languages these areas were seen as a multi-faceted phenomenon which could be used to disseminate cultures which find themselves outside the audiovisual and literary ‘mainstream’ and to maximise audience or reader numbers for minority cultural products.

As one of the main conclusions, translation into minority languages not only increases the volume of available material in a marginalized or a minority language, but may have a wider cultural impact and contribute to the development of the language as a dynamic creative medium.

Related links...
Merrcator Media website
Symposium Programme
Paper on minority languages and media in the EU, by Elin Haf Gruffydd and Gwenno Piette (2003)

CALL FOR EU FUNDING GUARANTEE FOR LESSER USED LANGUAGES

October 2005 - Catalan MEP Bernat Joan called for guaranteed European funding to support lesser used languages in a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg held the 24th October 2005.

MEPs debated proposals for the CULTURE 2007 scheme which is set up to support diverse cultural projects in Europe in the period 2007-2013. MEPs asked for a total of €600 million made available for the whole scheme and Bernat Joan argued for specific support for minority languages. Speaking in the debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Bernat Joan said: "In looking at the financial proposals that go with the Culture 2007 scheme, many of us are gravely concerned about an issue that has not yet been properly recognised by the European Union: that is the promotion of minorized languages and minority languages within EU”.

Bernat Joan also made specific reference to the CoE European Charter for regional and Minority Languages: “according to the Charter for Minority Languages, each linguistic community has the right to maintain, to develop and to pass on to future generations its own language. In the European Union, we have official languages, minority languages and languages, like Catalan, that, being majority languages in their own country, are not a part of the first or of the second group”.

Mr. Joan concluded that “for the sake of all of these languages, for the sake of linguistic diversity in Europe, the EU has a duty to provide financial support. I know that what I propose is contrary to the Jacobinist language policy, which is prevalent in some European states, but by supporting lesser used languages we promote diversity, democracy and freedom. And we promote also the maintenance of a real ecology of languages in the European Union."

A MINISTERIAL DECREE ON LANGUAGES IGNORES THE TEACHING OF THE “REGIONAL” LANGUAGES OF FRANCE

October 2005 – The implementation of the measures included in the Law of Management and Programming for the Future of School Education, best known as Law Fillon, has begun. A governmental decree regulates the main measures on the teaching of languages, the goals, the assessment criterion and the setting up of an academic commission for the languages. It was unexpected, though, that the languages which the decree refers to would be exclusively foreign languages.

One of the measures affecting minoritised languages in France, the organisation of their teaching and the levels of competence achieved –in particular those regarding levels A1 in elementary school, B1 as the first language , A2 as second language and B2 as first and second language- is established under title I. Its content has an essential consequence since it implies that the foreign and the so-called regional languages no longer go hand in hand in the legal texts. Such distinction contravenes the legal dispositions set up in the decrees on foreign and regional language teaching enacted in 2002 and 2003, which regulated the schedules and the programmes of elementary school and made, legally speaking, both regional and foreign languages equal in terms of importance. Therefore, it also seems to contravene the spirit of the Law Fillon, which establishes in article 20 that “the teaching of the regional languages and cultures can be offered throughout the period of compulsory education in accordance with the modalities drawn up via agreements between the state and the regional or local administrations”. These administrations, therefore, clearly accepted liability for the teaching of the regional languages.

Thus, the measures set up in the new decree leave aside the regional languages and only refer to the foreign ones. An example of such omission is that the decree determines the levels of competence of foreign languages in school but it does not give details on the regional languages. The state, consequently, seems to have withdrawn from the responsibility of promoting them.

Nevertheless, it is still to be seen how this secondary legislation will be enforced and whether its interpretation will be strict.

GEORGIA FINALLY RATIFIES THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES

October 2005 - The Georgian Parliament ratified on 13th of October the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the first legally binding multilateral instrument addressing the issue of minority rights, including the rights of linguistic minorities. This document was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 10 November 1994. It was opened for signature on 1 February 1995 and entered into force 1 February 1998. As of 10th October 2005, 37 states out of 46 member states had ratified or acceded to the Convention. Terry Davis, Secretary General of the CoE, had urged Georgia “to make an urgent progress with the ratification of the Convention, which the country promised to ratify at the time of joining the Council of Europe.” The urgency seems understandable considering that Georgia remained one of the few countries that had not yet ratified it.

As regards to linguistic rights, the parties ratifying the Convention undertake to “recognise that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing.” It also establishes, amongst other things, “that persons belonging to those minorities have adequate opportunities for being taught the minority language or for receiving instruction in this language” but “without prejudice to the learning of the official language or the teaching in this language.”

However, and in spite of Mr. Gaon’s - the Council of Europe’s Ambassador to Georgia- comments emphasising that “Georgia should ratify the minority convention without declarations as was done by Latvia earlier this year”, Georgia refrained from undertaking a commitment to ensure the conditions which would make it possible to employ minority languages in relations between the representatives of the national minority groups and the administrative authorities in areas predominantly populated by national minorities. The Georgian side also states that it will not be responsible for implementing provisions of the Convention in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, territories with which Georgia is in conflict.

Up to now, Georgia has not signed the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages.

THE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES IN SPAIN HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC

October 2005 - The Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe has declared that “Spain must be praised for the high recognition and degree of protection provided in principle to regional or minority languages”. However, the report on the application of the European Charter for regional or minority languages in Spain also considers that “there is still a need for awareness-raising in Spain” about this issue and “very little attention is devoted to linguistic diversity by the national Spanish media and there still seems to be a lack of awareness among the Castilian-speaking majority population [...] that Spain is a plurilingual country. More efforts therefore seem to be needed in education for the majority Castilian-speaking population and in the national media with a view to fostering a greater acceptance and respect by the majority vis–à-vis the specificities of regional identities as an integral part of the Spanish heritage”. Furthermore, it stresses that “there still exists a clear gap between some of the undertakings chosen and the level of protection offered by the domestic legal framework and/or practice”.

The report, issued on the 21st of September, points out that “a general problem affecting all languages covered under Part III is related to the field of justice” and the State administration in the autonomous communities concerned. The recommendations adopted by the Committee of Ministers observes that the Spanish state has not taken the necessary legal and practical measures needed to ensure that judicial and state administration staff have a working knowledge of the languages concerned. The languages covered under Part III are, according to the report, Galician, Basque, Catalan and Valencian. The segregation of Catalan and Valencian as two different languages has been a subject of controversy since the report states that “the Catalan language is also split in three different autonomous communities, ie Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Aragon”, leaving aside the Valencian Country which shares, according to the international academic world, the official Valencian Academy of Language and other university institutions, the same language with the former territories. The Committee of Ministers also recommends the Spanish authorities to strengthen the protection of the minoritised languages spoken in the autonomous community of Aragon, where a language law is yet to be adopted. These languages are Aragonese, covered under Part II of the Charter, and Catalan, which has made a remarkable progress in Catalonia but it was described to the Committee of Experts as being critical in Aragon.

As regards the field of education, the experts also suggested that a “full immersion” educational model should be made systematically available for Catalan in the Balearic Islands, as well for Valencian (sic) and Galician. It also identified some shortcomings in education in the Basque Country. The use of Basque in private radio and television broadcasting and in the autonomous administration of Navarre also poses some problems. Moreover, the experts advise to apply “an appropriate form of Part III protection to the Basque language within the mixed zone”, an area where the aim of promoting the language as established in the Foral Law on Basque cannot fully apply. Concerning the languages that are only covered by Part II of the Charter, the Asturian language is in a rather special situation given the social prestige that has been acquiring in recent years. The Committee encourages the autonomous authorities to not simply recognize its existence but to qualify it as co-official in the Principality of Asturias.

The Spanish state agrees that the authorities must introduce formulas to enable and foster the promotion of regional or minority languages, but believes that it cannot be overlooked “the fact that the effectiveness of the measures depends on voluntary acceptance by speakers”. Most of NGO promoting non-Castilian languages have replied to this comment by pointing out that the use of other territorial languages is not a matter of voluntarism but of right.

THE ADUM PROJECT ENTERS THE DISSEMINATION PHASE

October 2005 - The Adum consortium held its last meeting in the present phase of the project at the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel on Wednesday October 5th. For nearly two years, in the context of the Action Plan for Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity, six institutions from Catalonia, Wales, Friuli, Slovenia, Belgium and Ireland have developed this project, which aims to offer people and organisations throughout Europe that work for the regional or minority languages information on the European programmes that can be taken advantage of to (co)fund projects to promote these languages. Adum includes an interactive networking environment to aid the drafting of proposals.

During this phase Adum members also met M. Jacques Delmoly, head of the Multilingualism Policy Unit of the DG for Education & Culture, and Mme. Teresa Condeço, the Action/project manager and policy developer on Regional and minority languages. The rapid increase in the number of partners and experts who have registered in the website's data base was underlined by the team, for it is a good sign of the growing use, and usefulness, of the website.

The Adum steering committee members had a meeting with the European Parliament Intergroup for Traditional National Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages. They agreed that they will co-operate closely in the future as strategic partners. The members of ADUM offered their expertise and support for the Intergroup. They also agreed that the ADUM will have to opportunity to present the project on the Intergroup and it is hoped that MEPs interested in the issues covered by the Adum project, will not only take note of the website, but also disseminate widely in their constituencies, and invite potential partners to register. Other events at which the Adum project will be presented include the forthcoming IV Mercator Symposium on "Translation of Culture, Culture of Translation: Languages in Film, Television and Literature" (26-28 October 2005, Aberystwyth - Wales).

Related links...
Adum Project
Registration of Adum Partners and experts
IV Mercator International Symposium on European Minority Languages

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE PUBLISHES A REPORT ON MINORITY LANGUAGES IN CROATIA

September 2005 – Through a report issued on September 8th, the Council of Europe (CoE) expressed its concerns that the number of citizens who speak the language of minorities in Croatia is decreasing. According to the report, the citizens whose mother tongue is Croatian tend to be more tolerant to minority languages, "but as a whole, Croatia does not show enough respect for languages". The report also pinpoints a special problem with the Serbian language. At the same time, it welcomes new laws to protect linguistic minorities in Croatia, although it points out that some provisions may still lead to restrictions incompatible with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The report has been drawn up by a committee of independent experts for the second evaluation of Croatia’s application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages.

Its observations, endorsed by the Committee of Ministers of the CoE, include a recommendation that advises Croatian authorities to promote awareness and tolerance towards minority languages and the culture they represent so that they can be considered an integral part of the Croatian heritage. It also recommends to offer pre-school education in the Ruthenian and Ukrainian languages and, regarding primary and secondary education, at least the teaching of Ruthenian, Slovak and Ukrainian. The report points out that Croatia should develop a coherent strategy in the field of teacher training and provide adequate teaching materials for minority language education. According to the document, the Croatian government is advised to take the necessary measures to ensure that the legal possibility for the speakers to use their regional or minority languages in relations with the relevant branches of the State administration is fully implemented in practice. Moreover, it also calls for all relevant place names to be used bilingually, to increase the presence of minority languages on television and radio stations and to clarify the traditional presence of Slovenian language in Croatian co-operation with the speakers.

15th ANNIVERSARY OF THE OFFICE FOR NATIONAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES OF HUNGARY

September 2005 – The Office for National and Ethnic Minorities of Hungary celebrated its 15th anniversary last August. The Office, which is the main governmental organisation dealing with minority issues in the country, was set up in 1990 by Government Decree No 34/1990 (VIII.30) in order “to meet the government's responsibilities related to the national and ethnic minorities in Hungary”. It is an independent state administrative body with national sphere of authority and it is involved in minority-related legislation, in the preparation of amendments as well as in the drafting of government programmes designed to implement the minority act. Its objectives aim at promoting the identity, the language, the traditions and the cultural heritage of minorities, evaluating their situation and enforcing their rights. The Office, therefore, must watch over the application, amongst others, of the Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities. In accordance with article 42 of this Act, the languages used by minorities are: Bulgarian, Gypsy (Romani and Beash), Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Ukrainian.

This year the Office has continued to manage a fund for the minority self-governments to take over and maintain already existing minority educational or cultural institutions or to found new institutions of this kind. The assistance available for this purpose amounted to 1,8 M euros (HUF 440 M), and 11 out of 13 minority communities have applied and obtained financial assistance. The cash will support, among other projects and institutions, the German Theatre, the National Roma Museum, the Research Institute of the Slovaks of Hungary, a Croatian-language radio that will broadcast its programmes through the internet, the enlargement of the Museum and Archives of the Poles and the reconstruction of the Bulgarian Cultural Centre.

THE CATALAN GOVERNMENT ISSUES THE NEW LANGUAGE POLICY PLAN

September 2005 - Josep Bargalló, first minister of the Catalan government, and Miquel Pueyo, secretary of Language Policy, submitted last summer the Language Policy Plan for 2005-06 and analized the results of last year’s Plan in the Language Policy Report of 2004-05. Regarding last year’s report, governmental action temporarily came to a halt due to the substitution of Antoni Mir as a secretary of Language Policy, who was replaced by Miquel Pueyo, director of the Language Planning Programme until then. However, both Bargalló and Pueyo considered the outcome of 2004-05 Plan highly positive and pointed out that the program, funded with 3 million euros, was successfully implemented.

The Plan for 2005-06 aims at promoting the adoption of administrative and legal measures to guarantee the everyday use of the Catalan language as well as fostering its social use amongst youth people. It also aims at reinforcing the resources to offer Catalan language classes to adult newcomers and improving the quality of the language advise service. Moreover, it foresees to offer a Catalan course on-line in collaboration with the Ramon Llull Institute, the institute in charge of the international projection of Catalan language and its literature. The Plan establishes that the government will develop a programme in order to foster new technologies of information and communication in Catalan and will support cinema either originally in Catalan, dubbed or with Catalan subtitles. Additionally, it intends to encourage the availability of products and services in the language and endorse the use of Catalan in websites of private companies, strengthen the cooperation with other Catalan-speaking territories, especially Alghero in Sardinia and Northern Catalonia in France, and promote its legal equality in public state and European institutions.

Several organizations in favour of Catalan, such as Plataforma per la Llengua, regard these aims and principles as very convenient and opportune, in particular those relating to youth and leisure, fields in which usage of the Catalan language is weaker. The fact that the Department of Trade, Tourism and Consumer Affairs has started to fine companies violating the Linguistic Policy Act of 1998 is also viewed positively, an unprecedented action the former government did not dare to take clearly even though the law provides for it. As regards the welcome and language integration of newcomers, Plataforma per la Llengua finds the increasing number of language course offered appropriate, but suggests that agreements between government and private companies should be signed to allow students attend courses during working hours. It proposes to extend the campaign Volunteers for Language to non-students –an initiative whereby one Catalan speaker and a student who wishes to reinforce what he/she has learnt in the classroom share several hours of conversation - also, given the fact that more than 150.000 newcomers settle in Catalonia each year and not all of them attend the language courses. However, and according to Plataforma per la Llengua, there are several disadvantages, particularly when it comes to applying provisions that foresee a quota on cinema and a fairer distribution and exhibition of films in Catalan, and labelling and publicity in the country’s language, fields where Catalan shows low permeability. In Plataforma per la Llengua’s opinion, the measures “are too vague and are not clearly defined”. In conclusion, the organizations in favour of Catalan language are of the believe that the instruments set out in the document could be useful to take a step forward towards its normalization, but they might be in vain if they are not combined with a real and determined enforcement of the law.

Related links...
Language Policy Plan for 2005-06 (in Catalan)
Linguistic Policy Act of 1998
Plataforma per la Llengua (in Catalan)

COE HOLDS THE COLLOQUIUM ''EUROPEAN CULTURE: IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY''

September 2005 - The Council of Europe, in co-operation with the French Ministry of Culture and the City of Strasbourg, organised a colloquium on “European culture: identity and diversity”, held in Strasbourg on 8 and 9 September. The colloquium was opened by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, who stated “ I ask you to look at “Europe” and “culture”, at “identity” and “diversity” in all their various aspects […]. In the past, many colloquies of the Council of Europe have suffered from “splendid isolation” and a less than stringent follow-up. It will not be so in this case”. The event has been organized as part of the activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Cultural Convention, which has been signed by all 48 European states, and is aimed at developing mutual understanding between the peoples of Europe and a reciprocal appreciation of their cultural diversity.

The colloquium intended to lay down new guidelines for future Council of Europe programmes in the fields of education, culture, heritage, youth and sport. Different issues were tackled during the conference such as role of education, culture and dialogue in the formation of individual and collective identities. Also, the geographical or cultural limits of the identity were discussed together with the new challenges for language education policies with regard to ‘national languages’, languages of minorities and of newcomers.

The event, which was attended by more than 100 intellectuals, experts, figures from the world of culture and governmental and non-governmental representatives from all over Europe, also contributed to the development of the future cultural agenda of the Council of Europe.

THE INTERGROUP ISSUES A CRITICAL REPORT ON THE CONDITIONS OF THE SLOVENIAN MINORITIES IN AUSTRIA AND ITALY

September 2005 - On the meeting of 7th of July 2005 the Intergroup for Traditional National Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages examined the situation of the Slovenian minorities in Austria and Italy and adopted a recommendation on the Slovenian minorities in Austria and Italy.

The recommendation outlines the fact that Slovenian minorities feel affected by discrimination in the fields of education, culture and in their linguistic rights in Italy and Austria, and also that the implementation of the rights of the Slovene minority in Austria granted by article 7 of the State Treaty of Vienna continues to be obstructed and delayed. Moreover, in accordance with the text, Austria has still to implement the decisions of the Constitutional Court of 2000 and 2001, regarding the use of bilingual topographic signs and limitations on the use of Slovenian in courts, administration and other authorities in the province of Carinthia.

In the recommendation, the Intergroup for Traditional National Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages called on the Government of Austria to implement the decisions of the Austrian Constitutional Court “without any further delay”; it also urged Italy and Austria to help “reversing the worrying assimilation and emigration process of their Slovenian minorities”. Referring to education, it called on these two countries “to grant sufficient rights and resources for bilingual pre-school, primary and secondary education”.

Finally, the recommendation also referred to the procedure of ratification of the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Regional or Minority Language to be concluded by Italy. Moreover, it called the authorities in Italy and Austria to fulfill their responsibility for the protection of the minorities under the prevailing domestic law and international duties under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

FOUR MILLION EUROS FOR HUNGARIAN AND ITALIAN MINORITIES AND LANGUAGES IN SLOVENIA

September 2005 - The final draft of the Slovenian government’s budget has finally assigned four million euros for the protection of the Italian and Hungarian minorities, half a milion euros more than what it was initially budgeted. Italian and Hungarians, together numbering around 10.000, have representatives in the Slovenian parliament and are the only officially recognised minorities in the Constitution of Slovenia. The Constitution states that “within its own territory, Slovenia shall protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall uphold and guarantee the right of the autochthonous Italian and Hungarian ethnic communities”. As regards language issues, it seems that the Slovenian government is taking steps to implement the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages adopted in June 2004. The fourth point of the report recommended to “take the necessary measures to encourage the use of the Hungarian language in the context of court proceedings and economic life in the ethnically mixed areas concerned”; the fifth point says that a strategy should be established “to strengthen the use of the Italian language in the context of public administration and public services in the areas currently defined as “ethnically mixed”. However, some observers have pointed out over the last years that Slovenia only gives extensive rights to its small Italian and Hungarian minorities, which are legally classified as autochthonous, but not to the more numerous Kosovar Albanians, Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, Croats and others whose presence in Slovenia is primarily a legacy of former Yugoslavia, even though some small communities of Serbs and Croats have lived in modern-day Slovenia for centuries.

Thus, approximately 300.000 euros –40.000 more than what it was planned in the first draft- are aimed at funding the Comunità autogestite della nazionalità, a self-government body representing the Italian minority. The cultural activities of the two minorities will be covered by nearly 950.000 euros, and the initiatives to reinforce bilingualism in the areas where Hungarian and Italian are recognised will be granted more than a million and a half euros. With respect to such an important field as media, nearly one million euros have been confirmed to promote television programs reserved for the minorities in RTV Slovenia. Some Italian organisations and institutions such as Dramma Italiano, Edit and Centro de Ricerche Storiche will be funded with more than 235.000 euros, and 80.000 will help to found the Cultural Centre of the Italian Minority, which is based on the Hungarian counterpart that already exists. The government has also decided to invest some cash (45.000 euros) in the renovation of the newspaper “La Voce del Popolo”, the voice of the Italian minority for sixty years.

UK 2ND ECRML REPORT: 'A DISORGANISED AND MISLEADING MISHMASH' (EUROLANG)

August 2005 - The UK’s second report on implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) was recently published. Activists have criticised the report, yet overall there has been some gradual improvements for the lesser-used languages of the UK since it ratified the ECRML in 2002. Initial reactions look at the Scottish Gaelic and Cornish content in the report. Strong criticism came from Dr Wilson Mcleod a lecturer in Scottish Gaelic at Edinburgh University who specialises in Gaelic language regeneration. He described the report as a "disorganised and misleading mishmash. The UK Government's response to the key action points from the Experts' first report contains a number of half-truths and distortions. It is plain that the UK is still not living up to many of the commitments it has made."

Referring to the clause which aims to help generally promote Scottish Gaelic, Dr McLeod comments: "The Government's statement does not answer the question. The actions referred to here do not relate to efforts 'to make better known the rights and the duties deriving from the Charter'. In fact, the Government has done nothing of this kind since submitting its first report, and many bodies in Scotland either have a misconceived idea, or no idea at all, of what their obligations are".

The report also deals unsatisfactorily with Cornish according to language groups. It completely ignores issues raised by Cornish NGOs in their response to the first report on Part II. Article 7.1.b. The result may be a negative effect on the promotion and development of Cornish - partly because decisions on funding are taken outside of Cornwall. According to these organizations, the UK comments on Cornish refer to New Labour flavoured press releases on building a general awareness about different cultures, heritage and the importance of language learning, yet not once does it indicate that it will take any measures for Cornish schoolchildren to have the right to learn about their own language and culture.

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was drawn up in 1992 by the Council of Europe to help protect and promote Europe's lesser used languages. The UK Government signed the Charter in 2000 and ratified it in 2001 in respect of Welsh in Wales, Scots and Gaelic in Scotland and Ulster Scots and Irish in Northern Ireland. Manx Gaelic and Cornish were subsequently added, after an intense campaign leaded by the civil society.

Related links...
UK ECRML 2nd Report
Bòrd na Gàidhlig (Scotland)
Part II of the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages relating to Cornish

THE NEW BIPARTITE GOVERNMENT IN GALICIA AGREES UPON MEASURES TO INCREASE THE USE OF GALICIAN

August 2005 - The Galician sector of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSdG) and the nationalist Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG) reached an agreement last July on governing Galicia for the next four years. These two parties, which have taken out of office the Spanish conservatives (PP), in power in the autonomous community since 1990, signed a “program-contract” for a bipartite government that aims, as regards language issues, “to consolidate the cultural and linguistic traits of the Galician identity”, “to make progress in the normalization of our language, to protect and value our culture and heritage, key elements of our identity as a people” and “to promote policies to recover speakers of Galician and to extend its normal use in all social fields”.

Apart from this general declaration of intention, the agreement clearly establishes several specific measures to counterbalance the previous linguistic policies. To begin with, it says that the new government will endorse cultural exchange with Portuguese-speaking countries. Far from being a symbolic step to promote the language, and given the fact that both Galician and Portuguese are closely related and originally were the same language, this would reinforce the affiliation with a non-endangered language, which, according to many linguists, would not leave Galician isolated facing the pressure of Spanish. The agreement also foresees the strict fulfilment of the Galician Language Plan approved in 2004 through propper fundings, surveys and an annual report. It confirms the need for the creation of an institute for the external promotion of the Galician language. Besides, it points out that the Galician government will use Galician in all its oral and written communications, promote its normal use in all services offered by the local and the autonomous administrations and will guarantee the right of the Galician citizens to be adressed in Galician by the institutions. The bipartite agreed upon several issues on other fields. As regards to media, it will give its backing to a broadcasting percentage increase Galician. In relation to justice, the agreement will sponsor the normalization of Galician in the courts by, amognst other measures, establishing as a necessary requirement the knowledge of Galician for judges and other staff; moreover, the document states that all actions and legal proceedings of the Galician administration before judicial instances will be in Galician. In the area of education, the agreement points out that the new government will support the immediate application of the measures for the normalisation of the language compiled in the Plan for Normalisation approved by the Galician parliament in 2004 with unanimity of votes. It will also design an specific plan of support for the knowledge of Galician by immigrant students, and will promote new teaching materials and computer programs in Galician.

Related links...
Agreement for a bipartite government (in Galician)
Related article published in Eurolang
Galician Language Plan approved in 2004 (in Galician)

BEHATOKIA PRESENTS ITS FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

August 2005 – The Observatory of Linguistic Rights of the Basque Country named Behatokia has published its fourth annual report regarding the situation of Basque language. According to this report, language rights are violated in all the territories of this language community, whether in the south (within the Monarchy of Spain) or in the north (within the French Republic). Some local or regional authorities have offered to elevate the rights to official status, but others, nevertheless, do not agree. According to Behatokia, it is tremendously important that local and central government authorities provide official status to the Basque language and have legislation in place that protects language rights so that these rights are not violated.

The report points out that the violation of language rights does not imply only the violation of the fundamental principle of equality between two different human and linguistic communities based on Universal Declaration of Liguistic Rights and taken up by Behatokia. In the great majority of cases the government administration does not even comply with the linguistic legislation they themselves passed and which is in force in their territory. This is the case of the Foral Community of Navarre, which is taking the road of official reduction of the rights of speakers of a minority language. In Navarre, the existing laws and decrees do officially allow the institutional discrimination, since they are covered by the Law of the Basque Language. According to Behatokia, in essence, this is a social policy aimed at the disappearance of the Basque language and they conclude that the Government of Navarre has gone yet further and continued infringe its own already discriminatory laws in 2004.

With reference to the Basque Autonomous Community, the report states that language rights violations are perpetuated by the lack of obligatory enforcement of legislation in support of these rights. In fact, the introduction of new legislation to guarantee citizens’ language rights has not resulted in a decrease in violations, and no enforcement mechanish has been established. Likewise, the report indicates that in 2004, the Spanish administration maintained its policy of systematic violation of Basque speakers’ language rights. In this sense, Behatokia emphasizes that no corrective action has been taken in the courts, which continue to treat Basque speakers as if they where foreigners. With regard to the Republic of France, Behatokia considers that this country should recognise legal rights for the Basque-speaking community. Behatokia also suggests that France should ratify the international legislation relative to national and linguistic minorities.

For the 2004 report, Behatokia has analysed 707 citizens’ dossiers and 4,184 petitions from organizations and it has concluded that there is substantial similarity between the 2004 report’s findings and the conclusions of previous years. Synopses of the dossiers show clearly that the issues giving rise to the complaints that Behatokia has received since 2001 are repeated time and time again. Based on this report, Behatokia concludes that there has been a lack of effective progress in guaranteeing the fulfilment of citizens’ language rights.

RESOLUTION OF THE SEMINAR CULTURES IN DIALOGUE AS REGARDS MINORITIES IN EUROPE

August 2005 – From July 17th - 30th 2005 the seminar Cultures in Dialogue which took place in the border area of Denmark and Germany hosted 180 young Europeans. These youngsters were representing all kinds of European national, cultural and linguistic belongings. The work carried out in Cultures in Dialogue has addressed how to give recognition and how to safeguard the cultures and languages of national minorities in Europe.

After almost two weeks of work participants’ negotiations resulted in a joint Resolution aimed at improving the situation of minorities and the relations between minorities and majorities in Europe. The Resolution was released on July 28th at Flensborghus in Flensburg (Germany). It is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, the Framework Convention for Protection of National Minorities, the Charter on European Regional or Minority Languages, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the Council of Europe Recommendation 1201. The Resolution consists of 29 articles divided in four chapters. To begin with, chapter I defines the term minority. Chapter II sets down a number of rights minorities should have, while Chapter III establishes certain obligations. Finally chapter IV consists of six recommendations aimed at enforcing legal framework on minority issues.

The Cultures in Dialogue seminar was carried out on 3 independent schools in the Danish-German border region on both sides of the border as a part of the commemoration events of the 50th anniversary of the Copenhagen-Bonn Declarations agreed on by the Danish and German governments in 1955 with the aim of securing rights of the minorities in the Danish-German border region. These Declarations have been important sources for the development of peaceful co-existence among minority and majority population-groups in the region and an excellent example of how to promote understanding and tolerance between minority and majority population-groups.

Related links...
Final Negotiated Resolution of the Cultures in Dialogue 2005
More information related to Cultures in Dialogue 2005
The Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations

ADUM PROJECT OR HOW TO GET FUNDINGS TO PROMOTE LINGUISTIC COMMUNITIES

August 2005 - The new ADUM Project’s website, a virtual community which offers information on EU programmes relevant for the funding of minorised language promotion projects to people and organisations throughout Europe working for the promotion of these languages has been launched recently. The project has received co-funding thanks to a call for proposals published by the European Commission, in the context of the Communication from the Commission called Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004–2006 (COM (2003) 449 final) of 24 July 2003.

The partners in this project are the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Barcelona, Catalonia); the Research Centre on Multilingualism (Katholieke Universiteit Brussel, Brussels); the Centre for European Research, Wales; the Institute of Ethnic Studies (Institut za Narodnostna Vprasanja, Ljubljana, Slovenia); the International Centre for the Study of Plurilingualism (Centro Internazionale sul Plurilinguismo, Università degli Studi di Udine, Italy) and the independent consultant Dónall Ó'Riagáin from Ireland. Members of the team have worked together on other European projects, such as Euromosaic and Atlantis. The ADUM initiative is part of the macro-project on cultural diversity in Europe led by the Europa Diversa Network, a virtual organisation for people and institutions dedicated to understanding, discussing and working together on the situation of cultural diversity within the framework of the new Europe, and which has as one of its main founding principles the believe that cultural diversity is a richness to be respected and promoted.

The ADUM website, available in English, French and German, provides all the necessary information on the various potentially relevant EU programmes for regional, minority or minorised language communities. These programmes can be related to many different fields such as youth, education, agriculture, research and innovation, audiovisual, etc. It also offers internet links to a set of useful resources: websites on regional and minority languages, resources of statistical information, EU and other programmes, official reports and research papers. A virtual space for cooperation, where a user-friendly database of potential partners and experts is available, is also provided. This device is specially appropriate since it is more likely to get funds from European institutions if the project involves people and organisations from various countries of the EU. Another resource offered is a learning environment for designing a proposal. Candidates are advised here to take into account the needs of their language community and are given useful tips for writing the proposal and examples of successful proposals funded by the EU.

PUBLICATION OF THE SECOND OPINION OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ESTONIA

July - The Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has made public the second opinion on measures taken by Estonia. According to this Committee, Estonia has taken a number of steps to improve the implementation of the Framework Convention. In various key sectors, the authorities have addressed shortcomings in legislation and practice – improvements in electoral and citizenship legislation and citizenship legislation, as well as in the monitoring of language legislation has been made – and have step up their dialogue with representatives of national minorities and civil society.

Nevertheless, the Advisory Committee considers there are still shortcomings that Estonia should address. With regard to the scope and protection of state language, the Advisory Committee recommend that Estonian authorities should make further efforts to ensure that the development and promotion of Estonian language is not pursued through an overly regulatory approach and at the expense of the protection of national minorities and their languages. In this sense, the Advisory Committee considers that there remains a risk related to the continuous reliance on a regulatory approach to promote the state language that leads to problems in the implementation of the right of persons belonging to national minorities to use their language in private and in public, orally and writing.

In reference to minority languages, Estonia should ensure that adequate multicultural elements are included in school curricula and should also take further steps to encourage majority pupils to study minority languages. Accordingly, Estonia should improve its efforts in the field of teacher training and in the production of study materials suitable for a more bilingual school environment with a view to ensuring quality education. In addition, it should develop two-way contacts between children belonging to the majority and those belonging to a national minority. The importance of such contacts should also be reflected in the design and implementation of various models of education, starting at the pre-school level. Furthermore, Estonia should take further measures to encourage and facilitate access of persons belonging to national minorities to higher education institutions. In this sense, the Advisory Committee considers that it is important to ensure that increase in the volume of state language instruction in the secondary education is pursued in a manner that does not harm the quality of education in schools attended by persons belonging to national minorities and thereby limit their possibilities to access higher education.

The Advisory Committee of 18 independent experts drew up the opinion on the basis of the state report and other materials and after conducting a visit to Estonia. The opinion will soon be examined by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which will then adopt its conclusions and possible recommendations.

CORNISH LANGUAGE TO BE PROMOTED WITH FUNDINGS BY THE UK GOVERNMENT

July 2005 - The government of the United Kingdom has finally decided to support Cornish language regeneration with up to £ 240,000 of funding over the next three years. The cash needed to start up the project comes as the result of the decision of the United Kingdom to specify Cornish under part II of the Council of Europe’s Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in 2002. The decision was taken after a seven-year campaign by Cornish organisations and local authorities because the government did not include Cornish as a language to be protected in a first draft. From 2002 on civil society has been expecting some gestures from the government to implement what is established in the Charter; now the time seems to have come. According to the Strategy for the Cornish Language drafted in 2004, the funding should be aimed, amongst other things, at setting out an accessible education programme from pre-school to high school and adult education, creating effective and modern teaching resources, spreading Cornish in public life, specially in road and street signs, place-names and brochures, and promoting links with other European linguistic communities.

But there is one stumbling block: Cornish speakers cannot agree on how their language should be spelt. There are four main different spellings struggling for pre-eminence. Unified Cornish (kernewek unyes) was reconstructed using language found in medieval miracle plays and borrowing from related Celtic tongues such as Welsh and Breton (this system is supported by the association Agan Tavas). Forty years ago, as interest grew, the Cornish Language Board (Kevas an Taves Kernewek) was formed. Some members felt Unified Cornish was inaccurate and came up with a new system, with different spellings, Common Cornish (kernewek kemmyn). In the mid 1980s, another splinter group set up the Cornish Language Council (Cussel an Taves Kernuack) and championed a third system, Modern Cornish (curnoack nowedga), based not on medieval manuscripts but the way the language was last spoken in the 1700s. Finally, a revised version of unified Cornish came up in the nineties, known as Ucr.

This situation has led some in Cornwall to call for the standardisation of a written form to ensure that public money is not wasted. It is being argued that if public money is spent on supporting the different language organisations, each with their own spelling system, factionalism within the Cornish language movement will intensify. The worry is that the cash flow will dry up if agreement over spelling cannot be found. As it is widely known, standardisation is an essential step to spread languages in society, increase their prestige and gain ambits of usage in social sphere. Since the future of Cornish is at stake, a commitment of all parties is needed to reach an agreement.

REFORM OF THE SENATE’S REGULATION ON THE EXTENSION OF THE USE OF THE COOFICIAL LANGUAGES IN THE SENATE

July 2005 – The Spanish Senate has unanimously adopted a regulatory reform proposal aimed at extending the use of the cooficial languages in the Senate. From 1st September onwards, Spain’s cooficial languages could be used in all the sessions of the General Commission of the Autonomous Comunities -until now it was only possible to use these languages at the Autonomous Communities’ debate- and in non-legislative publications.

A new article 56 bis 9 has been added to the Regulation. This article establishes that the interventions that take place in this body can be done in any of the languages that have an official status in an Autonomous Community together with Spanish, that is to say, Catalan, Valencian, Basque and Galician. Furthermore, a 2nd paragraph has been added to article 191 of the Regulation. According to this paragraph, if someone presents a motion, an appeal or a question in Spanish and in any of the languages that have an official status in an Autonomous Community, in accordance with the Constitution and with the corresponding Statute of Autonomy, the initiative will be also published in this language.

The nationalist parties supported this Regulation, even though they consider it insufficient and even though their amendments have been rejected. These parties requested that all the writings and communications should be written in all the Autonomous Communities’ languages, that the senators should have the right to use these languages in their interventions, that they should be incorporated into the material distributed among the senators and in the web site’s information and that the answers to the writings addressed to the Senate should be done in the same language in which they are formulated, should these languages have an official status.

Related links...
Site of the Spanish Senate
Reform of the Senate’s Regulation (in Spanish)
Related article (in Catalan)

FEASIBILITY STUDY CONCERNING THE CREATION OF A EUROPEAN AGENCY FOR LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY AND LANGUAGE LEARNING FINALLY PUBLISHED

July 2005 – On 4 September 2003, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution with recommendations to the Commission on European regional and lesser-used languages – the languages of minorities in the EU – in the context of the EU enlargement and cultural diversity. In this Resolution, the European Parliament, called on the Commission, to present a proposal for a legal act, setting up a European Agency for Linguistic Diversity and Language Learning, taking due account of regional and minority European languages.

Now, the European Commission has published the results of the study which aims at assessing the need for setting up a European Agency for Linguistic Diversity and Language Learning taking into account the existing organisations in the field of linguistic diversity and the policies set out in the Commission’s Action Plan.

The study looked into different solutions that can be offered at the European level to the identified needs. The stakeholders in the field of linguistic diversity and language learning were presented a number of different potential solutions to the perceived needs. The study presents various options in order of how adequate stakeholders consider them to be to remedy the needs. Among the different solutions, the best options recommended by the study would be to create an autonomous (new) agency; to develop or create existing or new networks; to extend the role and tasks of the European Commission; or to create a virtual agency (managed by existing institutions as a project).

As main conclusions, the reason for setting up an autonomous EU Agency in the broad domain of linguistic diversity and language learning is strong. This is linked to the increasing importance of this policy domain and the opportunities that exist to significantly improve the public sector efficiency and impact through EU-level initiatives. Setting up an autonomous Agency is not the only potential solution to help cover the gaps and needs. The better alternative solution would be a networking model that could federate and enhance efforts of various types of organisations active in the field.

IRUÑA/PAMPLONA’S CITY COUNCIL MODIFIES UNILATERALLY THE REGULATION ON BASQUE LANGUAGE

July 2005 - Iruña/Pamplona’s city council adopted in 1997, with the consensus of all the municipal parties, the Regulation on Basque language, in order to regulate and guarantee the presence and the use of Basque language within Iruña’s township. In this sense, two commissions formed by experts, trade unions and political representatives were established: the Commission for place names and the Commission for language profiles.

In 1998 the Commission for language profiles adopted a report that settled the number of positions required to guarantee citizens’ language rights : 130, approximately 10% of the total staff of the city council. However, this report was never discussed in the city council, in spite of being adopted by the commission. Since then, the municipal government has only demanded the knowledge of Basque for 4 positions (two translators, a Basque technician and an administrative assistant appointed to the presidency). The city council considered that these positions were enough to guarantee the treatment in Basque language withouth discrimination.

During these years the city council has lost numerous trials for not respecting the bilingual image of the city and for not valuing in the official announcements for public positions the knowledge of Basque recognised in the Regulation, so as to guarantee the right to address to the municipal administration in Basque. The judges have obliged the city government team to change their application of the law and the government team composed by Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) and Convergencia de Demócratas de Navarra (CDN), which has absolute majority in Iruña/Pamplona’s city council, adopted in June the unilateral modification of the Regulation, which will allow them to legitimate the legal irregularities carried out during these years.

The Spanish Committee of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages has criticised the reforms put forward by Iruña/Pamplona’s municipal authorities, because they contradict the words and the spirit of European Institutions’ general provisions of language policies, particularly the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. According to this body, these reforms will seriously accelerate the extinction of Iruña/Pamplona’s bilingual landscape and the language use of Basque speakers with the public administration.

Related links...
Iruña/Pamplona’s city council. Act nº 11 - 2nd June 2005 (in Spanish)
Related news (in Spanish)
Euskara Kultur Elkargoa Foundation

MEDSF AND LANGUAGE DIVERSITY

June 2005 – Between 16th and 19th June the first Mediterranean Social Forum was held in Barcelona. During those three days more than 200 seminars and workshops, nine main conferences and different assemblies organised by women, by the movement against war and by social movements in the Mediterranean took place in the Fira fairgrounds.

On Thursday June 16 the seminar “Linguistic diversity in the Mediterranean” organised by CIEMEN / CONSEU and two other organisations that work for the promotion and defense of Catalan Language (CAL and Plataforma per la Llengua) was held. This seminar was presented by Alexia Bos, Mercator-Legislation programme coordinator and had the participation of Aureli Argemi (CIEMEN’s Chairman), Miquel Strubell (UOC), Adil Mostaui (UAB) and Karim Akbih (Amazigh-Catalan community). Generally speaking, the seminar dealt with the various linguistic realities in the European Union and with the linguistic rights situation in other Mediterranean areas. More precisely, part of the seminar was intended for explaining the situation of linguistic discrimination the amazigh people are suffering in different African countries where amazigh language and culture exist.

The Mediterranean Social Forum is following an evaluation process of the results and it is quite probable that a second forum will be organised in the future. The MEDSF has meant the first step towards the union within diversity of people from the North, South, East and West of the Mediterranean.

Related links...
Mediterranean Social Forum
CIEMEN (in Catalan)
Dossier 14: The Amazigh language within Morocco's language policy

NEW PIECE OF MINORITY LEGISLATION ADOPTED IN HUNGARY

June 2005 - On the basis of the Bill No T/9126 on the election of minority self-government representatives as well as on the amendment of some acts concerning national and ethnic minorities, on 13 June 2005 the Hungarian Parliament adopted a new law that will bring about important changes in the Hungarian legal framework affecting the life of national and ethnic minorities.

After more than eight years of deliberations, the new law (requiring a two-thirds majority) was adopted with the overwhelming majority (95%) of the votes of the MPs present: there were 303 votes for and 10 votes against the law, with 7 abstentions. The law was worked out on the basis of Article 71 of the Constitution, with the aim of enforcing the right of Article 68, according to which the national and ethnic minorities living in the territory of the Republic of Hungary may set up local and national self-governments. It will essentially widen the scope of authorities of minority self-governments and contribute to the setting-up of bodies elected only by the members of the communities concerned.

The law provides clear definitions among others on what shall be considered as minority public affairs, minority educational and cultural institutions and minority media. It also specifies the scope of authority, the duties of the new medium-level minority self-governments to be established and it changes significantly the legal status of national minority self-governments.

The new legal provisions will also modify the way in which minority representatives can obtain preferential seats in the local municipal government. By making use of a preferential system, that member of the local minority self-government who obtained the highest number of votes at the local minority elections will become a member of the municipal government with full powers.

2007: EUROPEAN YEAR FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

June 2005 - The European Commission (EC) presented a proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and the Council on the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All (2007). Actually, also by means of a Communication the EC has designated 2007 as 'European Year of Equal Opportunities for All' as part of a concerted effort to promote equality and non-discrimination in the EU.

Taking into account that one of the key challenges facing the enlarged European Union is the need to develop a coherent and effective approach to the social and labour market integration of ethnic minorities, the EC proposal sets out a forward-looking strategy to promote non-discrimination and equal opportunities for all in the EU. In addition to the legal protection of individual rights, the proposal by the European Commission sets out a strategy for the positive and active promotion of non-discrimination and equal opportunities for all.

If the proposal is finally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, the Commission will closely monitor the implementation of the framework strategy and the initiatives set out in the proposal and in the Communication from the EC. It will call on external expertise, where appropriate, in order to evaluate progress made and the impact of specific activities. In the interests of transparency, the Commission will organise regular meetings with key stakeholders, including national authorities, specialised equality bodies and civil society organisations in order to seek their views and to encourage their active involvement in the promotion of non-discrimination and equal opportunities for all.

Related links...
European Commission Communication
EC proposal for a decision
EC Press release

THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS DECIDES ON LINGUISTIC MINORITIES (Eurolang)

June 2005 – The European Council of Foreign Ministers decided in Luxembourg to allow the usage of all official lesser-used languages in European institutions. The decision stands as a Council ‘conclusion’ and marks a breakthrough in status for many of Europe’s lesser-used languages.

However, the move stops short of giving these languages Treaty status, as campaigned for by the Catalans and Basques. While EU legislation will be translated into these languages, in contrast to Treaty status, it will not have legal value. Under the agreement, citizens writing to the EU institutions will receive a reply in their own language as well as in the official state language. Costs will be met by the member state concerned.

Two further shortfalls are that only languages that have some official status in their member state can have this provision. The Council conclusions state that these languages are those "whose statute is recognized by the Constitution of a Member State on whole or part of its territory or whose employment as a national language is authorized by the law." In addition, it is entirely up to the member state to decide whether or not to implement the new provisions. Therefore, languages such as Scottish Gaelic and Welsh having official status in part of the UK will benefit, while Breton, Occitan and Corsican, unless France changes its current policy, will be completely left out.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos called the decision "an important step in the acknowledgement of the multiculturalism and linguistic diversity". In contrast Catalan MEP Bernat Joan (EFA) described the move as "a very small step – but not enough".

On the other hand, EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Luxembourg have unanimously accepted the Irish Government’s proposal that official and working status be given to the Irish language in the European Union. The proposal is scheduled to take effect from 1st January 2007. The intervening period is to enable the EU institutions to build the capacity to provide the Irish language services that will result from the Government’s proposal. This proposal provides that key EU legislation (that adopted jointly by the Council and the European Parliament) will be translated into Irish. Interpretation from Irish will also be provided at certain Ministerial meetings.

Having official status includes Irish being one of the languages taken into account for the purposes of recruitment to the EU institutions. Irish now becomes the 21st official language of the EU.

ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES ETHNIC MINORITIES LAW (Divers)

June 2005 –One house of the Romanian Parliament passed the draft law on Ethnic minorities elaborated by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség – RMDS). Adoption by the other house is expected in the autumn session according to the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania.

In accordance with the legal text, ethnic minorities will be able to study in their native languages at all education levels, starting with kindergarten and including schools, high schools and universities. The text also establishes that the state shall guarantee mother tongue education in separate institutions or separate groups, and exams can be taken in the mother tongue. Minorities will receive funds from the state and local budget to create educational institutions in their native language.

According to the bill, the officially recognised minorities in Romania are the Albanian, Armenian, Bulgarian, Czech, Croat, Greek, Jewish, German, Italian, Macedonian, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Roma, Serbian, Slovakian, Tatar, Turkish and Ukrainian communities.

Furthermore, a considerable part of the bill focuses on language rights. It establishes language as one of the most important elements of identity of an ethnic group, in addition to culture, cultural heritage, tradition and religion. The bill prevents authorities from discriminating against anybody for using their mother tongue.

The bill, supported by the Government, establishes cultural autonomy for ethnic minorities in the country based on language, educational, cultural and religious rights supervised by minority autonomy councils. Representatives of the internal opposition of Romania’s largest ethnic Hungarian minority, however, found the bill minimalist, disadvantageous for smaller minorities, and anti-democratic. The bill was also criticized by the opposition. Former Prime Minister and Social Democrat Party (PSD) leader, Adrian Năstase, who said that draft law does not allow the possibility of other national minorities to officially register in Romania and set up their own organizations.

Related links...
Ethnic minority Bill
Related article in Eurolang
Ethnopolitical map of Europe – Information about Rumania

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE ADOPTS TWO RESOLUTIONS IN RESPECT OF BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA AND ALBANIA, AND MAKES PUBLIC ITS SECOND OPINION ON DENMARK

May 2005 – The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted a resolution in reference to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of monitoring the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, highlighting a number of issues on which Bosnia and Herzegovina is expected to take further measures to support national minorities. The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists mainly of Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and Yugoslavs.

The Committee of Ministers has welcomed the adoption of a Law on the Protection of Rights of Persons Belonging to National Minorities, but it considers that the implementation of relevant norms in practice still remains a major problem. The provisions on teaching minority languages, on media broadcasting for national minorities and on proportional representation in public authorities and in the civil service have not prompted substantial changes. Futhermore, new consultation structures for national minorities, such as the proposed Council of National Minorities and corresponding bodies at the level of the Entities, have not been set up despite concrete legal obligations. According to the Committee of Ministers these shortcomings need to be addressed as a matter of priority by the authorities both at the State and Entity levels.

In respect of Albania, the Committee of Ministers has adopted a resolution on how Albania has put into practice the principles contained in the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The national minorities living in Albania are Greek, Macedonian, Montenegrin and the linguistic minorities of Roma and Aromanians. According to this resolution, Albania has made commendable efforts in the protection of national minorities, in the field of education and the provision of schools and classes for certain national minorities. However, further efforts are required to complete the legal and administrative framework and to ensure its full realisation in practice, including the use of minority languages in relation with administrative authorities and the display of traditional local names, street names and other topographical indications. There is also a need to establish measures to extend minority language education, where there is a need and demand.

With regard to Denmark, the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention has made public the opinion on measures taken by this country. The opinion will soon be examined by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which will then adopt its conclusions and possible recommendations.

For further infomation consult the following links:

5th PARTNERSHIP FOR DIVERSITY FORUM FOCUSES ON ADDED VALUE OF LESSER-USED LANGUAGES (Eurolang)

May 2005 – The 5th Partnership for Diversity (PfD) forum was held in Gorizia in the multilingual region of Friuli. The forum focused on the added value and the benefits of lesser used languages. The PfD gathered a number of experts from across Europe who represented different minority languages of Europe. Among all them, it is worth to be mentioned the presence of a number of local and regional authorities, such as the Mayor of Gorizia, Vittorio Brancati, Roberto Antonaz, regional councillor for Culture and Education, and the German-speaking representative Velia Plozner. The Mayor of Nova Goriza described how linguistic diversity helped to “dilute the border” and that the area is an “European laboratory for cross border cooperation.”

Several speakers such as Giorgio Brandolin, president of the province of Gorizia, criticised the lack of progress with the implementation of Italian language law 482, but that he remained optimistic. In accordance with the information published in Eurolang, he described how Gorizia “was multicultural but events and tragedies in World War One and Two had destroyed years of multicultural best practice. He emphasised that “linguistic minorities suffered because of the negligence of Italy and Yugoslavia”.

Different participants such as the Galician representative for the Language policy, or the Catalan Director for Language Policy Mr. Miquel Pueyo, took part of the plenary sessions. Also the plenary speaker Meirion Prys Jones from the Welsh Language Board discussed the importance of engaging young people in the language regeneration effort and the Board’s efforts to encourage this.

The Forum continued with workshops and debates in Gorizia and Nova Goriza (Slovenia). The main conclusions of the PfD in Gorizia were that minority languages give the regions added value and that diversity and bilingualism are a great opportunity in the new Europe going against the European project merely being based on economics. The Forum, which concluded in the Friulan capital Udin (Udine), will move next year to Sabhal Mor Ostaig on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Related links...
PfD programme (in Friulan)
Law 482/99, December 15th, 1999 (text in Italian)
Welsh Language Board website

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PASSES A RESOLUTION IN DEFENCE OF A NATIONAL MINORITY IN RUSSIA

May 2005 – A resolution on the condition of the Mari minority in the Russian Federation was passed unanimously by the European Parliament at its plenary session in Strasbourg. The resolution states that the Mari minority face considerable difficulties in obtaining education in their native language, since there is no secondary or higher education in Mari. Moreover, the publication of Mari textbooks has declined in the past years.

The resolution calls on Russia's federal and local authorities to respect the freedom of press, and to refrain from undue political interference in the affairs of educational and cultural institutions. It also calls on Russia to respect its obligations under international law concerning protection and development of minority languages and cultures.

"Altogether, national minorities in Russia make up 28 millions of people. Four million of them speak Finno-Ugric languages. In the Mordovian language spoken by around a million people, just some twenty books are published each year, no newspapers are published, nor is this language taught in any school. The situation of the Maris is but a bit better", according to the Estonian MEP Marianne Mikko.

According to the last census, the Maris are a 604 thousand people living in the Mari Republic, located to the east of Moscow. Today, the Maris are underrepresented in Russia due to a constant ethnic cleansing carried out in the local administration of Mari republic, even if this minority has repeatedly demanded the observance of human and civil rights, as well as the right for education, publications and broadcasts in their native language to the extent equal to that available to Russians in th Mari Republic.

Related links...
Information Centre of Finno-ugric people
Text of the resolution
More information on the Mari minority

THE PARLAMENTARY PAPER ABOUT LINGUISTIC POLICY IN THE REGIONAL COMMUNITY OF NAVARRE (NAFARROA) ENDS WITHOUT AGREEMENT

May 2005 - The parliamentary paper about linguistic policy proposed by the left wing independentist pacifist political party Aralar has ended without agreement. For seven months, this paper has studied together with social agents the adaptation of Euskera’s situation to current reality and social request in Navarre (Nafarroa). However, the opposition parties did not reach any agreement. The text aproved by the socialist party did not meet the minimum requirements that it had defended in previous legislative periods and therefore, it did not get the support of the rest of the opposition parties (the Green Party IUN-EBN, the right wing nationalist party EAJ-PNV and the moderate left-wing nationalist party EA). The only party which gave a favourable vote was CDN (a right wing division of the Popular Party), as the ruling right-wing Popular Party (UPN) did not support the paper either. Aralar asked for its dissolution and left the voting, because they considered that the paper did not comply with basic recommendations under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and that it did not even meet the 1986 Regional Basque Law.

One of the main proposals made by social organisations and the majority of the opposition parties (IUN-EBN, EAJ-PNV, EA and Aralar) referred to the elimination of the division of Navarre in three different linguistic areas, so that Basque language could be official in the whole Navarre (Nafarroa). This would allow the extension of Basque public education to the “non-Basque-speaking-area”. According to social movements and the above mentioned opposition parties, the Socialist Party and the Popular Party in Navarra have once again turned a deaf ear to society requests and have showed their lack of will in this matter.

The 18/1986 Regional Basque Law of 15 December regulates the status of the Basque language in the Regional Community of Navarre. As a result of this legislation, Navarre was divided into three linguistic areas, the "Basque-speaking area", the "mixed area" and the "non-Basque-speaking area". Basque is only considered official in the first area, and hence not all of the Navarrese citizens have the same rights. Since the beginning of 1999, the Government of Navarre headed by the right wing Popular Party, have cut the rights granted to Basque speakers by means of several decrees, decisions, orders and administrative agreements. One of these examples is the 372/2000 Regional Decree of 11 December, which regulates the use of Basque in the Public Administrations of Navarre. This decree restricts the administrative use of Basque and in practice turns the area defined as mixed in the Law of Basque of 1986 into a non-Basque speaking area. According to recent figures given by the Government of Navarre 30 % of the pupils follow their education in Basque with Spanish as a subject.

At the international level the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL) set up on the initiative of the European Parliament in 1982 and financed by the European Community has denounced several times the worrying situation of Basque language in Navarre and the regressive policy the Government of Navarre has been following in the last years.

LANGUAGE INTERGROUP BACKS BID FOR EU OFFICIAL STATUS FOR CATALAN, BASQUE AND GALICIAN (Eurolang)

May 2005 – Language Intergroup leader Csaba Tabajdi MEP met with European Parliament (EP) President Josep Borrell to deliver the group’s unanimous declaration calling for Catalan, Basque and Galician to be used in the EP’s plenary sessions.

The declaration focuses in Catalan language and describes the legal framework of this language at state-level. It also stresses that “the respect for linguistic diversity is one of the democratic and cultural bases of the Union”, as outlined in Article 22 of the Charter of the Fundamental Laws of the European Union ("The Union shall respect cultural, religious and linguistic diversity"). In accordance with all these, the declaration sets that a language can not be discriminated just because it is not spoken in the whole of a State.

The declaration also states that: “The Catalan language can be used in the plenary by the European Parliamentarians that wish it. In order to facilitate the task of interpretation, however, the parliamentarians who wish to speak in Catalan at plenary will warn the interpreters services the day before of its wish of intervening in that language so as to guarantee that there is an interpreter in the cabin of Spanish interpretation who can translate Catalan to Spanish or any other official language.”

Finally, the declaration also refers to other languages than Catalan: the possibility of using the Catalan in the EP Plenary sessions should be extended to the other two co-official languages of the Spanish State that are the Euskera and Gallego, eventually requiring the previous delivery of the intervention in writing in any official EU language.

UN APPROVES NEW WATCHDOG ON MINORITIES

May 2005 - A new United Nations special mechanism on minorities has been approved by consensus of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) at its 61st session in Geneva. A UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues will engage in dialogue with governments and minorities worldwide to promote and protect minority rights. This new mechanism will be a valuable tool to meet the challenge of widespread and ongoing minority rights violations.

The new mandate will play a key role in promoting minority rights issues within the UN system. Essential to its effectiveness will be the ability to enter into consultations with Governments and minorities in a constructive, problem-solving manner, in order to resolve issues of contention. Currently, the UN has only a Working Group on Minorities devoted to minority issues. The establishment of the Independent Expert on Minority Issues, together with the post of UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide created last year, reflect that the UN is getting serious about the protection of minority rights.

The Working Group on Minorities, which was established in 1995, is a subsidiary organ of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (previously called the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities). The Working Group on Minorities meets in Geneva, once a year, for five working days. The eleventh session of the Working Group on Minorities will take place in Geneva from 30 May to 3 June 2005.

According to figures provided by the NGO Minority Rights Group International, minorities comprise an estimated 30-40% of the world’s population, and 70% of the world’s conflicts are of an ethnic or religious nature. In consecuence, rights of minorities should receive greater attention in order to prevent ethnic and religious conflicts and to progress towards the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

HEARING ABOUT NEW NORDIC LANGUAGE POLICY

April 2005 - The Nordic Language Council has issued a draft Nordic language policy for consultation this spring. It takes the form of a declaration designed to raise Nordic language co-operation up onto a more political level and was drawn up as a direct result of a recommendation by the Nordic Council.

The main purposes of the Nordic Language Council are to promote inter-Nordic language understanding, spread knowledge about Nordic languages in the Nordic countries, promote a democratic language policy and attitude to languages in these countries and strengthen the position of the Nordic languages in and beyond the Nordic region.

The Nordic Language Council is part of the Nordic Council, which is the interparliamentary body involving the MPs from the parliaments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the three autonomous areas: the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. The Nordic Council takes initiatives and acts in an advisory and supervisory capacity on issues and matters of interest to official Nordic co-operation including languages.

Related links...
For further information about the consultation process: (Swedish version)
Sami Language Council:
General information about Faroe Islands:

CATALAN AND VALENCIAN WILL FINALLY NOT BE TAUGHT AS SEPARATE LANGUAGES IN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE SCHOOLS

April 2005 – The controversy over the unity of the Catalan language has appeared in the political scenario once more. This time regarding the languages to be taught in the so-called Official Language Schools (Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas). In accordance with a draft decree prepared by the Spanish Government, it was planned that Catalan and Valencian would be taught as two different languages. However, as reported in several media, the decree’s definitive version, passed by the Council of Ministers (Consejo de Ministros) on 15 April, unexpectedly establishes that Catalan and Valencian will be put together in one single curriculum. Such decree will start to be implemented in 2005-2006.

The Spanish Government’s last-minute decision is thus in line with its recent policy regarding the unity of the Catalan language, initiated in December 2004 when it requested the officiality of Spain’s co-official languages in the EU. The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred then to “the language called Catalan in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and in that of the Balearic Islands and Valencian in the Valencian Community”. However, such decision has come rather unexpectedly, as the draft decree made public only a few days before the Council of Ministers’ final decision proposed to separate both languages in two different curricula. The Government’s first intention was to not modify a decree issued by the previous Government (PP) in December 2003, which faced strong opposition from different political and social sectors.

In the last weeks, the Valencian regional factions of the ruling party (PSOE) and of the minor left-wing party Izquierda Unida, for instance, have put pressure on the Government to use the so-called “Catalan/Valencian” double designation, while Official Language School representatives have sent a letter to the Minister of Education requesting her not to separate them as two different languages. In addition, the Government has received protests from the education trade union STEPV-IV and from several civil organisations, like Plataforma d’Estudiants per la Llengua or Acció Cultural del País Valencià. By contrast, the Valencian regional government, in the hands of PP (now in the opposition in the Spanish Parliament), has announced that it will appeal against the Government’s decree.

(See also previous Mercator-Legislation news regarding the language unity issue: January, February and March 2005).

REPORT ON THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION PRESENTED BY THE CoE

April 2005 — The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (CoE), Alvaro Gil-Robles, presented a report on the respect for human rights in the Russian Federation to the Committee of Ministers. The report was prepared after two extensive visits and it mainly focuses on the fight against racism and xenophobia, the rights of national minorities and the situation of national languages, amongst others.

The report outlines that the Russian Federation is a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state and that it is inhabited by more than 170 ethnic groups, designated as nationalities. The report also states that national minority rights and their respect and protection is one of the problems in contemporary Europe, and as far as the Russian experience in this area is concerned, the policy towards national minorities is a positive one although resources are limited, meaning that linguistic and cultural development consequently poses greater problems.

The report explains the experience of the Commissioner when visiting the minority peoples in Khanty-Mansiysk. It also gives an explanation on the situation of those minority indigenous peoples living in the north and Far East: the Aleuts, Inuits, Itelmens, Kamchadale, Koryaks and Nenets, among others.

Furthermore, the report also states that the signature by Russian Federation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in 1996 stands for a very positive development. It also acknowledges that the National Cultural Autonomy Act, which was passed also in 1996, provides the legal and political framework for the development of national minorities.

Finally, as for the right to education in national languages, the report specifies that instruction in the mother tongue mainly takes place in nursery, primary and secondary schools. In most cases though, national language teaching is confined to language classes. The report identifies the regional and local authorities as the key participants in ethnic dialogue and the development of national minorities, since they can make a direct contribution to the development of national minorities.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION ON THE REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN THE BALKANS

April 2005 – The European Parliament plenary session held the 14th April adopted a resolution on the reconstruction of Western Balkans underlining the fact that the region of Western Balkans is a high priority for the European Union. The Resolution covers the situation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, but also focuses on Albania. Regarding Albania, the European Parliament points out that Albania's European prospect and the progress in negotiations on the Stabilization and Association Process with the EU is closely linked with the respect of minority rights.

Specifically, Tirana is called to respect the ethnic Greek minority rights. At the same time, the European Parliament expresses concern because the political climate in Albania is problematic with tensions inside the ruling party. Currently, most of the Greek Minority in Albania live in southern Albania, a region called Northern Epiros by most Greeks. As reported by the Macedonian Press Agency, the Albanian government has cleaned ethnic Greeks from appointed positions of power.

Apart from the resolution of the EP, the European Commission has reminded repeatedly that the respect and support of minority rights, as well as an open and constructive attitude toward minorities in Albania constitute basic preconditions for the country's progress in the Stabilization and Association Process with the EU.

Related links...
Text of the Resolution
Mission Report on the situation of the Greek minority in Albania
U.N. Press release

NEW EUROMOSAIC STUDY PUBLISHED ON THE LANGUAGES OF THE TEN NEW EU MEMBER STATES

April 2005 – A new updating of the Euromosaic study has been recently published online at the website of the European Commission (Directorate-General for Education and Culture), for the moment only in English although French and German versions will be also provided in the near future. The new version, known as Euromosaic III and commissioned by the European Commission, is the third updating of the study, covering the ten new EU Member States, while the first version, carried out in 1992, covered the EU12 Member States and the second version added Austria, Finland and Sweden to that first list, following the 1999 enlargement. The website offers reports on the languages of the ten new Member States as well as the ones from the two previous versions.

Euromosaic III analyses the situation of the various language communities in existence in the new Member States, approximately 90, and establishes their potential for production and reproduction as well as the difficulties they encounter in doing so. The contents are distributed in individual reports for each language community and they are available through a drop-down menu. A wide range of information is provided, including country profiles and a comparative summary, which are interesting novelties if compared with the Euromosaic I and II studies.

The comparative summary (available in English, German and French) focuses on interesting general facts, such as the linguistic proximity of minority languages to the “majority” language in their respective state. Such proximity is higher in the new Member States than in the EU12 Member States. Another element which may be highlighted is the fact that the biggest minority language groups are the Russian speakers in the Baltic states, in the first place, followed by Romani and Hungarian speakers. However, the report admits the difficulty to determine the number of speakers, as an apparently reliable resource such as the official censuses never reflects the number of people that actually ‘use’ the language and the difference between official statistics and (unofficial) estimates can be very high. The difficulty to draw a clear line between what is a dialect and what is a language is also significant. Other interesting issues are the territorial distribution of minority languages (high average dispersal rate) or the relevance of the notion of the kin state.

Related links...
The Euromosaic study
Comparative summary (also available in French and German)
Previous Euromosaic study on the EU15 Member States

DRAFT LAW ON MINORITIES IN ROMANIA WILL SEE THE LIGHT SOON

April 2005 — During the last weeks, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség - RMDS) elaborated the draft law on minorities, which recently has been made public. The experts of the RMDS party have completed the draft and it has been distributed to the senators of this party, as well as to NGOs, youth organizations, etc.

In accordance with the usual legislative process, the law will in its final shape be passed in the spring legislative term. As defined by RMDS the draft law intends to be a framework law and in principle it regulates all the aspects of the right to the use of mother tongue and the right to education and culture in mother tongue. Specifically, the law defines those national minorities that can be regarded as traditional and historical minorities in Romania due to their long-lasting co-existence with the Romanian majority. Moreover, this law introduces for the first time the concept of national community and it also sets that national minorities are state-forming factors.

The draft law also defines the status of minority organizations: a minority organization can take part in political life, local and parliamentary elections based on specific criteria. The most important element of the draft law on minorities is the establishment of the legal framework for the practice of cultural autonomy. Therefore, if the draft law is finally passed, minorities will have the right to independent cultural, education and press institutions, and minority communities will be able to decide on the supervision and functioning of these institutions.

Related links...
Draft law on minorities (in Romanian)
Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of Romania
Ethnopolitical map of Europe – Information on Romania

50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BONN-COPENHAGEN DECLARATIONS CELEBRATED AMID SOME TENSION

March 2005 – The 50th anniversary of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations was celebrated by Germany and Denmark on 29 March. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Minister President of the Land of Schleswig-Holstein Heide Simonis took part in a ceremony held at the Danish Sonderburg Palace. One of the outcomes of the celebration was a joint statement issued by Chancellor Schröder and Prime Minister Rasmussen, in which they praised the Declarations as a source of inspiration for handling minority issues in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

The Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations are a series of agreements which secured the rights of minorities in the German-Danish border region, whose populations approximately amount to 50,000 Danes living in the northern German region of Schleswig-Holstein and some 15,000 Germans living in Soenderjylland in southern Denmark. The treaties were signed by Danish leader H.C. Hansen and his German counterpart Konrad Adenauer on 29 March 1955 and still serve as a European model for respectful treatment of minorities and conflict resolution, as they recognise to both minorities the right to use their own language, to practice the religion of their native country and to be elected into regional and national parliaments through a minority quota. Furthermore, both groups have lived pretty much in peaceful coexistence since the treaties were signed.

However, now and then some of the old hostilities resurface, and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Declarations took place within a somewhat tense and strained political atmosphere, as some skepticism has appeared in the last weeks in regard to the good shape of the Danish-German relationship. This relative aggravation has been mainly caused by the voting results in the recent elections in the Land of Schleswig-Holstein on 20 February, after which the party representing the Danish and North Frisian minorities (SSW) was thrusted into a key position, despite having reached only 3.6 percent of the votes and two parliamentary seats. The results allowed this party to keep the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party in power for another term, as the SSW agreed to support them, although the Christian Democrats (CDU) got the most votes. This caused a storm of outrage in Schleswig-Holstein and Germany as a whole, as there was much criticism towards the Danish minority’s so-called “privileged political status”, on account of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations, which establish that the political parties representing minorities are exempt from having to win a minimum 5 percent of votes to secure seats in the regional parliament. In fact, such exemption was recently confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court. As the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) reports, some politicians said that a “party of Danes” should not interfere with German politics and a large conservative newspaper demanded the cancellation of the special rights for minorities in Schleswig-Holstein. As reported by Eurolang on 5 March, the two SSW parlamentarians have been treated extreme hostile and SSW leader Anke Spoorendonk even received death threats.

IRISH PLACENAMES ORDER COMES INTO EFFECT IN THE GAELTACHT

March 2005 — A law ensuring the use of the Irish language version of placenames in Gaeltacht districts has started to take effect. This Order was enacted in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, which sets forth that the Minister may by order declare the Irish language version of placenames, both in the Gaeltacht or outside of the Gaeltacht. The Placenames Order (Ceantair Ghaeltachta), which was already signed by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív in December 2004, relates to 2,319 placenames in Gaeltacht areas (Gaelic-speaking area). The change affects the names of more than 2,300 towns, villages and crossroads in the three regions of the seaboard called the Gaeltacht, and is aimed at giving legal standing to placenames throughout the Gaeltacht.

From now on the English version of these names cannot appear in Acts of the Oireachtas (the National Parliament of the Republic of Ireland), on road and street signs or ordinance survey maps. The Minister's plan is to extend the use of Irish language placenames to the rest of the country within seven to ten years. Therefore, outside of Gaeltacht areas the intent is to ultimately make it a legal requirement for the Irish language version of placenames to appear alongside the English version on all official documents, maps and signs. Whatever the case may be, at the moment the law does not apply to independent producers of maps, although they are expected to follow the policy.

The approval of this Order raised some criticism, since some people, especially those related to the tourism sector, argued that this new order would result in confusion for tourists from across the border. However, the Minister for Rural, Community and Gaeltacht affairs Eamon O Cuiv defended the move.

Related links...
Placenames orders (Ministry for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs website)
Official Languages Act 2003
Foras na Gaeilge website

STEP FORWARD FOR SPANISH IN EUROPE BUT STEP BACK FOR CATALAN, BASQUE AND GALICIAN IN SPAIN

March 2005 – The official use of Spanish is definitely secured in the institutions both in the EU and in Spain while Spain’s other official languages still have a long and hard road to hoe before they are treated in equal terms with Spanish. While Spanish officials invoked linguistic rights when it came to defending with strong protests the translation services into Spanish in the European Commission, they do not prove to be so zealous when it comes to defending the right to use the Catalan, Basque and Galician languages in the Spanish Lower Chamber.

As regards the controversy in the European Commission, it all started when the newly appointed Commission decided to drop Spanish and Italian as working languages during the news conferences in the press room and to use only English, French and German, in order to reduce translation costs and gain efficiency. The result was a diplomatic row, with the Italian and Spanish Governments writing protest letters to José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission. There were also demands from the Spanish and Italian journalists for translation services in their languages and the atmosphere in the press room grew tense. The problem even transferred to other European institutions, such as the Parliament, where some Italian members threatened to go on strike if speeches or documents were not translated into Italian, and the Council, where Spain vetoed a discussion because the documents to be discussed had not been translated into Spanish. All this howl of protest led the Commission spokeswoman François Le Bail to make a solomonic decision: from now on the press conferences made by the commissioners will be translated only into the six official languages used in the Council of Ministers, i.e. English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, plus Polish, as a gesture for the new EU eastern Member States.

According to the Spanish ambassador in the EU Carlos Bastarreche, this controversy will not hinder the chances of Galician, Basque and Catalan to have official recognition in the EU. For the moment, the ambassadors of all 25 Member States decided in a meeting held on 10 March to postpone the decision on this issue until the summer.

As regards the claims for the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the Spanish Lower House (Congress of Deputies), it is not yet clear whether they will be satisfied. While a reform of the chamber’s Standing Orders is currently being prepared, there is no certainty as to whether the new version will include the possibility to speak in Catalan, Basque and Galician in the plenary sessions. Moreover, there has been some tension in the Lower House in the last weeks regarding this issue, as the president of the chamber, Manuel Marín, has not allowed some Catalan and Basque members to speak briefly in their language before continuing in Spanish, as had been temporarily agreed by consensus until a final arrangement is included in the new Standing Orders. However, the two main parties in the chamber do not show a clear support to the introduction of these three languages. While the right-wing conservatives (PP) are against it, the social democrats (PSOE) are in favour of granting such language rights only in the Senate. By contrast, the Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE) made a speech in the French National Assembly some days ago defending linguistic diversity.

Related links...
Related article from the Herald Tribune
Related article from Eurolang.net
Current Standing Orders of the Congress of Deputies

ONE STEP FURTHER FOR THE SUPPORT TO LOW GERMAN AND SATERFRISIAN IN LOWER SAXONY’S SCHOOLS

March 2005 – The Parliament of the Land of Lower Saxony (Germany) adopted on 24 February a resolution for the support to Low German and Saterfrisian in the schools of the Land. The parliamentary debate was carried out in Low German. The resolution, entitled “The regional Low German and Saterfrisian languages in school”, is in fact the final version of a text discussed in the Land’s Parliament last year (see Mercator-Legislation’s news: June 2004), now modified by the Culture Commission and approved by all parliamentary groups. The text states that these two minority languages are components of the Land’s identity and that, as such, they must be preserved, promoted and strengthened in a sustained way. It explains that, while Low German is widely used in rural areas, both in working and private life, and in several cultural fields, such as in amateur theatre, literary publications and newspapers, Saterfrisian is only spoken in a very small area by about 2,000 speakers and therefore needs special protection.

The resolution contains a set of petitions to the Government of the Land which, in summary, concern the need to secure the chair of Low German language and literature in Lower Saxony, the further implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the consideration of Low German with stronger compulsoriness in the field of teacher training.

The concrete measures to be carried out by the Government are the following: 1. To keep on implementing in a continuous way the commitments acquired on the basis of Article 8.1 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; 2. To secure a chair of Low German language and literature in Lower Saxony, in order to guarantee, for instance, possibilities to complement teacher training; 3. To create the necessary conditions for schools located in the speaking areas of these two languages to offer classes for their learning; 4. To initiate learning projects of these two languages in the different school types and in several schools grades; 5. To produce class materials and recommendations, as well as to test and introduce them in class; 6. To provide and strengthen reliable expert advice for schools as regards these two languages; 7. To coordinate curricular and extra-curricular activities for the learning of these two languages in regional level institutions; 8. To suggest and promote the networking of pre-school and school initiatives for the learning of these two languages; and 9. To promote the involvement of adults who are proficient in these two languages in school activities.

NEW COURT DECISION RECOGNISING THE UNITY OF THE CATALAN LANGUAGE

March 2005 – The Higher Court of the Valencian Autonomous Community has issued again, for the fifth time, a decision upholding the full legality of the ‘Catalan’ denomination in regard to the language spoken in the Valencian Country. As reported by the Linguistic Policy Service of the University of Valencia, the decision (no. 158/2005) was issued on 11 February in response to an appeal filed by a person against the Valencian Government. The person in question was excluded in 2003 from being eligible for a civil service position due to the fact that she had relied on her Catalan Philology degree to certify her Valencian language command.

The arguments stated in the decision include references to several precedents: a decision by the Spanish Constitutional Court from 1997 (no. 75/1997) and four decisions by the Valencian Higher Court from March-May 2004 (nos. 330/2004, 393/2004; 518/2004 and 677/2004). All such decisions oblige the Valencian Government to accept the Catalan Philology degree as a valid document to certify the Valencian language command when applying for the official examinations for secondary education teachers. Therefore, it is established that the ‘Catalan’ denomination is a valid equivalent of the ‘Valencian’ denomination not only in higher education but also in public administration.

One of the legal grounds used in the decision states the following: “the Constitutional Court [...] already tackled the issue –from the university autonomy perspective– as to whether “the denomination of ‘Valencian language’ used in the Statute of Autonomy of the Community is of an excluding nature and prevents the use of any other one”, obviously referring to that of ‘Catalan language’; and it reached a negative conclusion” (third legal ground). The decision of the Valencian Higher Court also states that applicants for teacher position examinations having a Catalan Philology degree are exempt from the obligatory and eliminatory Valencian examination, as happens with those holding a Valencian language teaching degree (fourth legal ground).

Mercator-Legislation’s next Working Paper, currently in preparation, will analyse the Catalan unity issue. It will be published in the end of March under the following title: “The origin and evolution of language secessionism in Valencia. An analysis from the transition period until today”.

REPORT ON LINGUISTIC DISCRIMINATION SUBMITTED TO THE UN

March 2005 — The French Committee of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL) presented on 23 February a “Report on the linguistic and cultural discrimination against persons belonging to groups or minorities in France” before the Committee for the UN Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The report, presented on the occasion of the 66th Session of the CERD, stresses the lack of recognition for diversity by France, illustrated by its failure to ratify the European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), and the negative reaction to the recommendations by the European Parliament and by the Council of Europe.

Moreover, the report is quite critical with the French government and the National Assembly and it remarks the “contradictions” of the French government, such as the ones arisen by the official declarations by the Head of State or by his Ministers, who say “they support language and cultural diversity in the world”, but they do not endorse the Council of Europe’s conventions on the rights of minorities and on regional or minority languages. Actually, the report outlines that, according to a survey carried out in 1994, 77% of the population wanted France to ratify the ECRML. In April 2000 this figure had raised up to 82%.

The Regional Council of Brittany, represented by its vice-president Kristian Guyonvarc’h, gave also his support to the French Committee of EBLUL, urging the French State to recognize finally its regional and minority languages.

Apart from providing complete information on the situation of the media, education, and public and social life in terms of linguistic diversity, the report concludes that “the French system is still based on the refusal to acknowledge the diversity of language and cultural groups that make up the French State”, and it urges France to halt any hindrance to the use of regional or minority languages.

More information can be found in the report (see the link below).

THE NETHERLANDS RATIFIES FRAMEWORK CONVENTION, GEORGIA MAYBE IN SEPTEMBER

February 2005 – The Netherlands has become the 36th state to ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The ratification took place on 16 February and it will enter into force for the Netherlands on 1 June 2005. As regards the minorities protected, the declaration made by the Netherlands, contained in the instrument of acceptance, limits the provisions of the Framework Convention only to the Frisian minority, thus not considering ‘national minorities’ other discriminated groups such as the Roma. As pointed out by the organisation Minority Rights Group International (MRG) in a piece of news from last year, “the Dutch concept of ‘national minorities’ is limited to Frisians and fails to accept Roma or Sinti groups, and others including Moluccans, Moroccans, Surinamese and Turks, despite the fact that many have long histories within Dutch territory”. In fact, in 1999 a wider initial proposal on ratification was submitted to the Dutch 2nd Chamber (House of Representatives), but it was rejected because it offered greater protection “than desired or intended”. According to MRG, the Dutch declaration may be invalid as the reservation it introduces is incompatible with the object and purpose of the Framework Convention, in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Article 19). MRG suggests that the limitation kept by the Netherlands results in it being amongst the weakest, in terms of minority rights, of all states to have ratified the Convention, thus providing poor standards to follow for other states with far worse rights records.

There still remain six states which have signed but not ratified the Framework Convention: Greece, Latvia, Georgia, Belgium, Luxembourg and Iceland. And four have not signed it yet, including France and Turkey. As for Georgia, it has committed itself to ratify it very soon, most likely by the end of September 2005. In order to work on it, a meeting was organised on 14 February in Tbilisi by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and the Council of Europe (CoE). As reported by the CoE, the meeting brought together all relevant stakeholders, including representatives of the government and parliament, NGOs and minority associations as well as international organisations. One of the current most relevant issues concerning minorities in Georgia’s political agenda is a controversial draft law on primary education. As ECMI reports, the Armenian and Russian languages under the new law might not be maintained as the languages of instruction in minority schools. The Armenian population in the Javakheti region, for instance, where it makes a vast majority (95% of the population), is not opposed to the introduction of the Georgian language in the region’s schools, although they consider it should be taught as a second language.

SPAIN SAYS ‘YES’ IN FIRST REFERENDUM ON EU CONSTITUTION AND SLOVENIA RATIFIES IT

February 2005 – The referendum held on 20 February in Spain on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe came out with a wide majority voting ‘yes’, although the turnout, at about 42%, was the lowest ever in a referendum held in Spain since it recovered democracy. The support to the Treaty accounted for 77% of the votes, while the ‘no’ votes reached 17%. Blank votes accounted for 6%. However, while these are the overall results, the outcomes showed significant variations on a territorial basis, as the vote had a different pattern especially in those areas having their own national identity and a different language. While in most autonomous communities the ‘yes’ votes ranged from 81 to 86% and the ‘no’ votes from 10 to 13%, in the Basque Country, Navarre and Catalonia the support was much lower and the opposition higher. The most outstanding case was the Basque Country, where the ‘yes’ got 63% and the ‘no’ 34%. The results in Navarre were 65% for the ‘yes’ and 29% for the ‘no’, and in Catalonia: ‘yes’: 65% and ‘no’: 28%. In the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands, the other two Catalan-speaking autonomous communities, the opposition to the Treaty was relatively higher than in most monolingual autonomous communities, as the ‘no’ votes reached 16%. In Asturies, where Asturian is also spoken although it is not official, the results were very similar: ‘yes’: 76%; ‘no’: 18%. And yet, as for Galicia, despite having its own language, it was an exception to that differentiated voting pattern, as the ‘yes’ got 81% and the ‘no’ 12%. Other regions with a clearly differentiated voting behaviour were Cantabria (79/15) and Madrid (74/19), although in such cases the national and linguistic factors are unexistent.

Such territorial differentiation, especially in the Basque Country, Navarre and Catalonia, was basically due to national identity and linguistic reasons. While most political parties, including some nationalist ones, were in favour of the constitutional treaty, civil society mobilisations played a key role in providing arguments for the ‘no’. As regards the national identity arguments, they claimed that the treaty does not sufficiently recognise the rights of stateless nations and national minorities, especially since all references to ‘peoples’ have been erased from the text. As concerns linguistic issues, the main reason was the fact that Spain’s request for official status for Basque, Catalan and Galician does not aim at full equality with the rest of the Union’s official and working languages. Moreover, such request must still be unanimously approved by the 25 Member States. In this sense, Spanish Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero assured just a few days before the referendum that he had been given the support from French President Jacques Chirac. However, for the moment France’s support remains just a promise.

Spain is the first EU Member State to hold a referendum on the constitutional treaty, although it had no binding force. There still remain nine more states to ratify the text after holding a poll. As for the 15 states which have decided to ratify it through the ‘parliamentary’ procedure, three have already done so: Lithuania, Hungary (November and December 2004, respectively) and Slovenia (1 February 2005). Slovenia’s Parliament approved it by 79 votes to four. The Treaty is expected to enter into force by November 2006 provided that all Member States ratify it.

AGREEMENT ON THE UNITY OF THE CATALAN LANGUAGE

February 2005 — The official language institution in País Valencià (Valencian Country), the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Language Academy, AVL), may have solved the Catalan / Valencian language unity issue. On 9th February, AVL issued a “Statement on the principles and criteria for the defence of the denomination and the entity of the Valencian language” which brings to an end the language division and confrontation, encouraged by the Valencian PP government and which actually infringes Article 7.1.b of the European Charter for Regional Minority Languages, as denounced by the Observatory of the Catalan Language.

The aim of presenting the different modality of Catalan spoken in the País Valencià, and indirectly named as “Valencian” in Article 7 of the Statute of the Valencian Autonomous Community, as a language which is different from Catalan, has been accepted and encouraged by certain political sectors without any scientific basis. Recently, with the debate on the languages of the EU Constitution, Spain even intended to make Basque, Galician, Catalan and also Valencian EU official languages: the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, stated that the reason for the differentiation of Catalan/Valencian was strictly legal, as he said he just abided to the name mentioned in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy.

Now, after the talks between the presidents of the Valencian and Catalan autonomous communities, an agreement has been reached. The agreement establishes that the different linguistic modalities (Catalan and Valencian) constitute one language. It also sets that there are two legal denominations for the same language: Catalan and Valencian. Moreover, it includes that “Valencian” can refer either to the language itself or to the specific idiomatic modality; the agreement defends that both denominations (Catalan and Valencian) have been co-existing. Finally, it also makes clear that the historic language of Valencian people is, from the philological point of view, the same as that of Catalonia and Balearic Islands.

More information can be found in the upcoming Mercator-Legislation’s Working Paper n.18 to be published in March 2005.

DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 LAUNCHED

February 2005 – Eight eastern and central European countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Romania and the Slovak Republic) have launched an initiative known as “Decade of Roma inclusion 2005-2015” aiming at abolishing the discrimination of the Roma population and achieving their integration in society. This joint initiative, launched in cooperation with the World Bank and the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation), focuses on four priority areas: education, employment, health and housing, and on three related themes: poverty, discrimination and gender equality. The signing states have elaborated each a draft action plan in which they define the objectives they have committed to fulfil in the four areas mentioned.

It is in the area of education where several references are made to the Romani language, although these references are very few and affect only half of the states: Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Croatia. As regards Bulgaria, the draft action plan mentions the goal of preserving and developing the cultural identity of Roma children and pupils. The plan includes the introduction of Romani language teaching and the creation of the necessary educational and pedagogical conditions (school curricula, textbooks, teachers, etc.). In the case of Romania, the draft action plan also has a section on valuing and preserving the cultural heritage of the Roma and it refers, for instance, to creating opportunities to ensure full tuition in Romani language in pre-school and primary school. The Serbian draft action plan makes reference to Romani publishing and to offering elective subjects of Romani language (with all the necessary resources, such as programmes, teacher training and schoolbooks and manuals). And as regards the references made in Croatia’s draft action plan, they are very basic, as they only concern higher education.

All education goals of the Decade programme have concrete financial support through the establishment of the Roma Education Fund, which is currently being set up with offices in Budapest and Paris, with the active support of the Council of Europe. This Fund will deal with issues such as the harmonisation of teaching materials in the Romani language and the preparation of a framework for a European mother tongue curriculum for the Romani language.

The Roma are the most important minority in Europe as, with 10-12 million members, they account at least for 2% of the population of the EU, although the official censuses available are not reliable enough. The UN Development Programme has just published a report which is said to contain the largest set of data ever gathered on the Roma.

MINORITY LANGUAGES IN FRANCE WILL HAVE TO WAIT

February 2005 – An attempt to modify the French Constitution in favour of France’s regional and minority languages was turned down on 26 January in the National Assembly. The amendments proposed were voted against by a margin of less than 20 votes: in the case of the first two amendments discussed, they were turned down with 46 votes against and 25 in favour (the first one) and 47 votes against and 30 in favour (the second one). However, it must be highlighted that out of the 577 seats of the Assembly, less than 80 deputies were present for the vote, which means that such amendments were rejected by only around 7.5 % of the deputies. The modification of the Constitution must now be approved by the Senate, where further amendments concerning language issues may still be introduced.

The amendments proposed aimed at modifying Article 2 of the Constitution, which establishes that “The language of the Republic is French”, and also Article 53, by making reference to the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by France. As regards Article 2, the amendment proposed by UDF (Union for French Democracy) intended to add the words “within the respect for regional languages”, while the one put forward by UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) read “within the respect for regional languages, which are part of our patrimony”. However, this is interpreted by many deputies as something in contradiction with the defence of the French language and even as a nostalgic move. As for Article 53, one amendment proposed intended to add a third paragraph, which would read as follows: “The French Republic may ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe”, while also a sub-amendment was presented, which added “within the respect of the first paragraph of Article 2”. But the attempts for the French ratification of the Charter are very often considered unconstitutional, especially since the Constitutional Council issued a resolution in June 1999 saying that the Charter would be contrary to the principles of indivisibility of the Republic, of equality before the law, and of unity of the French people. The rest of arguments used against and in favour of these amendments may be consulted in the proceedings of the parliamentary debate (see link below).

But in spite of all obstacles faced by minority languages in the National Assembly, not all news is bad news. The status of Breton, as well as that of Gallo, was significantly improved on 17 December 2004, when the Regional Council of Brittany voted in favour of “officially recognising, alongside the French language, the existence of Breton and Gallo as languages of Brittany”. A language plan was adopted for their promotion in several fields, such as education, the media, social and public life. The text of the plan, entitled “A language policy for Brittany” is available in the link below.

LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PRESENT IN THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM

February 2005 — Several representatives of the European Free Alliance (EFA), the European political alliance of progressive parties, are participating these days in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brasil. The WSF is an annual meeting held by the left wing members of the alternative globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and about many different issues.

On the occasion of the event, the EFA representatives raised the debate of the necessity of a multilingual and multicultural society. Nelly Maes, president of EFA, claimed for “an international and juridical instrument protecting cultural diversity”. Ms. Maes explained that the market was not likely to protect the cultural and linguistic diversity and recalled that each year 30 languages die, in accordance with the UNESCO experts. Ms. Maes went on by stressing that “cultural products and services cannot be seen just as products and should therefore be exempted from WTO negotiations. The EU must take the lead in this debate and as an example they should recognise all the regional languages in the EU and make them an official language."

Also, the Catalan MP Pilar Dellunde from Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), a party member of the EFA alliance, declared that “this year one of the main WSF themes is Protecting Diversity, plurality and identity”, and put the stress on the “alarming process of disappearance of cultural, linguistic and social diversity in the world”.

More specific information on the programme, agenda and news of the WSF can be found below.

Related links...
The European Free Alliance website
World Social Forum website
Related information

SPAIN: NEW DRIVING LICENSE DIFFERENTIATES BETWEEN CATALAN AND VALENCIAN

January 2005 – The issue of the unity of the Catalan language still remains open, in spite of the latest advancements, such as the memorandum submitted by Spain requesting the officiality of its three co-official languages in the EU. This time the controversy is quite minor, as the differentiation is merely due to one word, but nonetheless significant, since it affects an official document. While until now the Spanish driving license included a bilingual text (in Spanish and in one of the three co-official languages), the new, more modern and handy edition of the document is being issued in four different bilingual versions, corresponding to Galician, Basque, Catalan and Valencian. Moreover, the form to apply for the license is also available in four bilingual versions.

Considering it is an official identification document and it includes a very short text, the difference between the Catalan and Valencian versions by only one word can hardly be coincidental, but the product of a will to differentiate between the two. In fact, the Valencian version of the word in question (“expén”, in the Catalan version “expedeix”) is a wrong translation, as it has a different meaning than the original Spanish word. While the meaning of “expide”, in Spanish, corresponds to the verb “to issue”, the Valencian version of the word corresponds to a verb that means “to sell”. A small detail after all, but quite revealing.

The possibility to issue a multilingual driving license is already implemented in other countries, such as Finland (in Finnish and Swedish) and Wales (in English and Welsh, although Welsh is not an official language). Other documents and items where multilingualism may be implemented, thus having a big pedagogical impact, are the ID, coins or stamps.

Related links...
Organització pel Multilingüisme
Related article from Levante newspaper (in Spanish)
Related article from Avui newspaper (in Catalan)

CRISIS IN BELGIUM BETWEEN THE FLEMISH AND WALLOON COMMUNITIES

January 2005 — On 25th January, the Belgian King Albert II addressed a communication to the French and Flemish speaking population calling for an understanding of both communities, since the relationship between the two communities has been tense during the past two weeks. “In a multicultural country, the true courage consists on favouring a common understanding, collaboration and comprehension”, said the Belgian monarch on TV.

Currently, at political level, the Flemish and the Walloons have a tense relationship in the federal Parliament of Belgium, more specifically when it comes to the issue of the electoral circumscription of Brussels, the only bilingual circumscription where the population can vote indistinctively for Flemish and Walloon parties. The Flemish parties claim for two ‘border’ municipalities belonging currently to Brussels (Hal and Vilvoorde). If their request is finally accepted, the Flemish circumscription would be enlarged. However, the French-speaking politicians are opposed to this proposal since it would “break” the last link between the French speaking population living in the capital and the one settled in the Flemish suburbs of the Belgian capital.

The Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt also asked for co-operation last Tuesday between the two linguistic communities, particularly concerning the issue of Hal and Vilvoorde.

The Belgian political system has always been quite complicated. The coexistence in a same country of two major communities -a Dutch-speaking majority and a French speaking minority- has been a source of conflicts for a long time. The State’s structures have been designed to guarantee an equal status of the two communities: There are, for instance, two linguistic groups in the federal Parliament, a French one and a Dutch one. So-called special majority laws, which deal with the state structure, can only be adopted by a majority in each linguistic group. Therefore, these laws can not be adopted without the consent of the French-speaking minority (in Belgium the majority of the population is Flemish). The Belgian Constitution established a federal state (represented by a federal parliament) with communities and regions. Each community and each region has its own directly elected council and its government: they make their own laws (decrees) on a number of specific matters and also ensure their implementation.

Related links...
Constitutional reform of the Belgian State – 1993 (text in French)
The Federal Parliament of Belgium (text in English)
Related article (in French)

LINGUISTIC COMPROMISE OF THE LUXEMBOURG EU PRESIDENCY

January 2005 — Yesterday, the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union, represented by the Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, engaged itself to work for the status of the Catalan language in the EU. This was the outcome of a meeting between the current EU president and some representatives of the Catalan nationalist party CiU (Convergència i Unió). Mr. Juncker showed his agreement with the linguistic memorandum presented by the Spanish state last December, and he added that the Luxembourg Presidency would work for an improvement of the status of the Catalan language at European level.

Mr. Juncker did not give specific measures about the ‘work’ to be done by the Presidency; however he said that he would try to convince his European partners to accept an improvement on the legal framework of the language. Juncker admitted that some Member states differ from this point of view, which according to Mr. Juncker is quite normal since ‘every member state has linguistic problems to solve internally or at EU level”.

So far, some Spanish representatives were not sure about the reaction of Luxembourg on the linguistic issue, arguing that this small country (one of the founders of the EU) has never asked for the full officiality of Luxembourgish. Actually, this State language enjoys certain rights at EU level, but has not a complete official recognition.

More specific information on the linguistic stratification or hierarchy as regards language recognition at European level can be found in the recently published dossier no. 17 by Mercator-Legislation.

TATAR LANGUAGE WILL CONTINUE TO BE WRITTEN THROUGH THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET (RFE/RL Newsline)

January 2005 – The Tatar Supreme Court decided on 28 December 2004 to overturn a 1999 Tatar law adopting the Latin script for the Tatar language. Such decision corresponds to a ruling of the Russian Constitutional Court from 16 November which upheld the constitutionality of a federal law requiring that the written forms of all national languages in the Russian Federation be based on the Cyrillic alphabet. Nonetheless, as reported by RFE/RL Newsline, the European Court of Human Rights has accepted for consideration an appeal against such ruling.

In accordance with the Constitutional Court, the Federal Law on the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, amended in 2002, establishes that each republic within the Federation may choose its own state language, but the use of the Cyrillic alphabet for all official languages is mandatory. The Court ruled that only federal-level legislators have the right to decide such linguistic matters and that by introducing the use of another script without special permission from the federal legislative bodies Tatarstan risked threatening the linguistic integrity of the Russian Federation, RFE/RL Newsline reported.

The origin of such ruling was an appeal filed by the Tatarstan State Council (parliament) and the Tatarstan Supreme Court, which argue that the Russian federal law on languages runs counter to the Constitution. One argument for the introduction of a script reform is that the Latin alphabet is more suited than the Cyrillic alphabet for transliterating the sounds of the Tatar language (a Turkic language). By contrary, prominent Tatar diaspora members sustain that such reform poses a threat to the unity and integrity of the Tatar people, as, according to them, the transition to a Latin script would not increase but lessen interest in the Tatar language. (For further information, see Mercator-Legislation’s News: July and February 2002.)

Furthermore, the Russian Constitutional Court also ruled in November in favour of bilingual teaching in kindergarten and general primary and secondary schools, as the Law of the Tatarstan Republic on Education was examined. In accordance with the court, the republics in the Russian Federation may introduce the teaching of non-Russian state languages to the same extent as Russian.

GAELTACHT PLACENAMES WILL BE IN IRISH IN MARCH

January 2005 – The Irish Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, signed the “Placenames (Ceantair Ghaeltachta) Order 2004” on 20 December 2004, which will come into operation on 28 March 2005. It will be implemented on road and street signage in 2,319 towns in Gaeltacht districts.

This Order has been enacted in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003 (Part 5), which sets forth that the Minister may by order declare the Irish language version of placenames, both in the Gaeltacht or outside of the Gaeltacht. In the case of Gaeltacht placenames, once the order takes effect the English version of the names ceases to have any legal force and effect, so that it cannot be used any more on road and street signs, in Acts of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament) or Statutory Instruments, or on Ordnance Survey Maps. While in the case of placenames outside of the Gaeltacht the effect of the new legislation is that the Irish and the English versions of the placename have the same status and the same legal force and effect. Therefore, as regards the Gaeltacht the Irish version has a priority.

Up to date, the Minister has made seven Orders under the Official Languages Act 2003 on the advice of the Placenames Commission. These orders declare the official Irish version of placenames for several counties.

In the near future, once the necessary regulations are issued, only the Irish versions of Gaeltacht placenames will be used in the definitive large-scale series of maps of the country used by Ordnance Survey and the Land Registry. Over time, the Minister will be requesting Ordnance Survey Ireland and other bodies providing maps for tourists to follow the same procedure.

The Department's plan is to have the remaining research and the necessary orders in respect of the remaining counties completed within 7 to 10 years.

FINLAND SUBMITS ITS SECOND REPORT ON THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES

January 2005 — Finland submitted its second state report pursuant to Article 25 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. It is now up to the Advisory Committee to consider it and adopt an opinion intended for the Committee of Ministers. This is the second periodic report of the Government of Finland on the implementation of the Framework Convention. The report covers the period between March 1999 and June 2004 and contains the follow-up and publication of the results of the first monitoring cycle as well as the resolutions of the Committee of Ministers which among other aspects remark that “Finland has over a period of time made efforts concerning the protection of the Swedish-speaking Finns and their status in such areas as media and education”.

However, the resolutions of the Committee included in the report also remind that despite some efforts, the implementation of the Framework Convention has not been fully successful as concerns Roma: actually, the committee stresses the existing socio-economic differences between some of the Roma and the majority population. As for the Finnish government and its work to combat discrimination, the report shows that it has taken different measures to promote tolerance and to prohibit discriminatory treatment: The establishment of the regional Advisory Boards promoting the co-operation between the Roma living in the provinces and the officials responding to the regional needs of the provinces, and a nationwide project on Roma children's education carried out in Finland in 2001–2002. Moreover, as stated in the report, according to the Constitution of Finland, which entered into force in 2000, “the Roma and other groups have the right to maintain and to develop their own language and culture”.

For further information, see the second periodic report of Finland included in the link below.

ANDORRA AND THE EU AGREE ON CULTURAL CO-OPERATION

December 2004 — The situation of the Catalan language in Europe could substantially improve due to the step made by Spain (it has been the first state to make use of the possibility that the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe be also “translated into any other languages as determined by Member States”) and also thanks to the historical cooperation agreement recently signed by the Principality of Andorra and the European Union.

So far, the links between the EU and Andorra were reduced to a customs convention signed in 1990. However, the new agreement establishes a co-operation in the regional, environmental and cultural domains. Structured in fifteen articles and covering over six different areas, the agreement sets specific actions aimed at protecting and disseminating the Catalan language. In particular, article 3 sets that these actions can be translated into cultural exchanges, the preservation and the promotion of Andorra’s cultural heritage, or the establishment of transfrontier research programmes aimed at disseminating history, arts or the Catalan language.

This agreement constitutes the first time that the European Union considers the possibility of giving explicit aid to the Catalan language. Actually, as expressed in the agreement, article 3 is inspired in article 151 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which sets that “the Community shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore”.

Moreover, the text of the recent agreement between Andorra and the EU has been written in Catalan, as well as in the 20 official languages and, therefore, it will be an authentic text. Consequently, except for the customs convention signed in 1990, this constitutes the only legal text with authentic value in the European Union, since the translations of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe do not contain this legal value, as the translations have not been signed by the competent European authorities.

The agreement was signed by the former Member of the European Commission responsible for Education, and Culture, Viviane Reding, the Andorran Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juli Minoves, and the Dutch Minister of Culture of the EU Dutch Presidency, Maria van der Hoeven.

Related links...
Consolidated version of the Treaty establishing the European Community
The EU’s relations with Andorra
Text of the agreement (text in French)

HUNGARY CITIZENSHIP VOTE RAISES CONTROVERSY (Divers Bulletin)

December 2004 — On 6th December Hungary voted in a referendum on whether to grant citizenship to up to 5 million ethnic Hungarians living outside the country, of which around half live in Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. However, the referendum may be annulled since the participation did not reach the 50% (the percentage needed in order to be valid). The scrutiny made at the end of the electoral session showed a discordant result: 51,3% votes for the Hungarian citizenship and 48,6% against the initiative.

The referendum was backed by Hungary's right wing opposition party, alleging that it could close the old sore originated with the loss of two thirds of the Hungarian territory after the First World War. Nevertheless, Hungarian left wing parties are against the dual nationality proposal, fearing a massive return of the Hungarian minority, who live today in neighbouring countries such as Romania. Actually, the issue of citizenship is especially sensitive for Romania, as nearly 1.5 million ethnic Hungarians live there, most of them in Transylvania.

According to the information given by Divers Bulletin, precisely Romania's Prime Minister criticised Hungary's proposal to grant citizenship to ethnic Hungarians abroad. “This is an insanity. That's an idea rather belonging to the 19th century," said Adrian Nastase, whose country has a substantial Hungarian minority. Nastase's comments were contested by Hungarian Foreign Minister Ferenc Somogyi as well as by the Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. Actually, Mr. Somogyi said that the Hungarian Foreign Ministry had received a letter from Romania's Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana saying ethnic Hungarians would have to renounce Romanian citizenship if they chose Hungarian citizenship.

The Hungarian political party in Romania, the Hungarian Democratic Union, said it was not upset by Nastase's remarks and would likely continue to support his party in the parliament. It was in coalition with Nastase's last government and backs a "yes" vote for Hungarian citizenship. "We're not offended by Nastase's statements nor by Geoana's letter," party executive vice-president Laszlo Borbely said. Now, with the elections in Romania together, the two parties would have 154 out of 332 lower parliament seats and would need to get support from most of 18 other representatives of various ethnic minorities to form a government.

ROMANIA ADOPTS LAW ON THE PUBLIC USE OF THE ROMANIAN LANGUAGE

December 2004 – The Romanian Parliament adopted on 12 November the “Lege privind folosirea limbii române în locuri, relaţii şi instituţii publice” (Law on the use of the Romanian language in public places, relations and institutions”). This law regulates the oral and written use of Romanian (the official language) in the public sphere according to the academic rules currently in force, while it also establishes that any text written or said in a foreign language having “character of public interest” must be translated or adapted into the Romanian language (Art. 1). By texts of public interest it is understood any text “displayed, exposed, broadcasted or spoken in public places or by the mass media” (Art. 2). The law also provides that television broadcasts in foreign languages from Romanian TV networks or from foreign TV networks with a license in Romania must be subtitled in Romanian or, in cases of emergency, they shall be accompanied by a simultaneous translation (Art. 3). Moreover, namings, instructions and other explanations written in a foreign language and with relevance for Romanian consumers must also be translated into Romanian (Art. 4).

As regards the languages of national minorities, the law includes several references in Article 5. This article states that excluded from the law are: (c) “publications written completely or partially in foreign languages, including those of national minorities”, (e) “radio broadcasts in the languages of national minorities”, (f) “live television broadcasts in the languages of national minorities”, and (g) “religious, ethnographic and entertainment broadcasts in the languages of national minorities made by local and regional TV networks”.

POLAND: NEW “LAW ON NATIONAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES AND ON THE REGIONAL LANGUAGE”

December 2004 – Poland’s lower chamber (the Sejm) passed on 4 November the “Law on National and Ethnic Minorities and the Regional Language” (the term “regional language” applying to Kashubian). However, it is not yet in force, as it must be also passed by the Senate. Only then, and once it is signed by the President and published in the Journal of Laws, will it become a universally binding law. In fact, the Senate may still introduce significant amendments to the law, which was passed with 247 votes in favour, 133 against and 6 abstentions. The text is for the moment only available in Polish.

As reported by the newspaper Schlesisches Wochenblatt, the final text does not include certain provisions granting wider linguistic rights to minorities. For instance, a proposal to amend the bill was turned down during the parliamentary debate; this proposal aimed at introducing the obligation for local councils of municipalities where minorities live to communicate with minority members in their mother tongue if they asked for it. Moreover, the final text introduced the use of a minority language in place and street signs only in those municipalities where a minority accounts for at least 50% of the population, while the bill proposed a much lower threshold of 8%.

IRELAND FORMALLY REQUESTS OFFICIAL AND WORKING LANGUAGE STATUS FOR IRISH IN THE EU

November 2004 – The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, announced on 25 November that Ireland is tabling a formal proposal requesting that official and working status be accorded to the Irish language in the European Union. The Irish Government already announced its will to do so some months ago, as reported by Mercator-Legislation (see previous news: July 2004). Nonetheless, the upgrading of the status of Irish is subject to the unanimous approval of all Member States, since it requires the amendment of the regulation governing the European institutions’ language regime (Regulation 1/1958), and this is why the request does not ask for the full status of the language in equal terms as with the rest of official and working languages. According this regulation, the Official Journal of the Community shall be published in the official languages (Art. 5); however, as stated in a press release, the Irish Government for the moment proposes that only certain key EU legislation (that adopted jointly by the Council and the European Parliament) be translated into Irish. The possibility of extending the range of documents to be translated into Irish, i. e. other acts, regulations, directives, decisions, and the judgments from the European Court of Justice, will be reviewed not later than four years after the adoption of the current proposal. This temporary derogation is similar to that negotiated for the Maltese language.

Related links...
Press release from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs
Eurolang news
Opinion article on the issue (Eurolang news)

FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES: RESOLUTION ON SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO

November 2004 – The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) adopted a resolution on 17 November 2004 regarding Serbia and Montenegro's implementation of the principles contained in the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The conclusions of the Committee of Ministers were quite positive concerning the constitutional structures: the resolution acknowledges that the Union of Serbia and Montenegro has undergone important changes in fields such as education, and has taken decisive steps to protect national minorities in the field of linguistic rights, for example.

However, the resolution is quite sceptical regarding the implementation of the relevant norms in practice aiming at protecting national minorities. Actually, the Committee of Ministers criticises the lack of co-operation between the relevant authorities of the State Union and its constituent states, urging Montenegrin authorities to co-operate for an “accelerated constitutional reform and institutional stabilisation in Serbia”.

In accordance with the CoE Recommendations, the protection of national minorities should receive greater attention from law-enforcement agencies regarding especially the effective investigation and prevention of violent incidents recently committed against persons belonging to Hungarian and some other national minorities. As far as the Bosnian minority is concerned, and according to the resolution, “further improvements should be achieved in the representation of this minority in the juridical framework”.

Finally, as for the juridical instruments of Serbia and Montenegro, the Committee of Ministers highlights the Union Charter of Human Rights and Minority Rights and Civil Freedoms as well as the federal Law on the Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities. In accordance with the conclusions, these juridical documents “constitute a good basis for the implementation of the Framework Convention” and, moreover, they contain a series of important innovations.

SPAIN PROVIDES TRANSLATION OF EU CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY IN THREE “LINGUISTIC VERSIONS” BUT FOUR TEXTS (Avui)

November 2004 – Spain has been the first state to make use of the possibility that the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe be also “translated into any other languages as determined by Member States”, as set forth in Article IV-448. This step is acknowledged in a declaration annexed to the Constitution as a way to contribute to “fulfilling the objective of respecting the Union's rich cultural and linguistic diversity”. However, such translation is just symbolic, as it is not an authentic one and neither does it entail the right to address the European institutions in the languages into which it has been translated. And it is precisely the translation languages, in particular the translation into Catalan and Valencian as two separate languages, what brought about a controversy and a strong political dispute in the Spanish scenario, finally solved by the Secretary-General of the Council of the EU, Javier Solana, at least for the moment.

Solana sent a letter on 18 November to all 25 Member State Foreign Affairs Ministers in which he stated that Spain had provided a translation of the Treaty into “three linguistic versions”, thus certifying that Valencian and Catalan are the same language and clarifying the confusion created by the Spanish Government on 4 November, when it submitted 4 different texts to the Council of the EU as if there were four languages (Galician, Basque, Valencian and Catalan). The texts had been facilitated to the Spanish Government by the four autonomous communities concerned, while Navarre and the Balearic Islands did not submit any translation since they acknowledge their language as Basque (“vascuence” in the case of Navarre) and Catalan, respectively. Solana listed the three “versions”, according to a certificate annexed by the Spanish Government, as one translation into Euskara (i.e. Basque), one into Galician and one “into the language known as “Valencian” in the autonomous community of Valencia and as “Catalan” in the autonomous community of Catalonia”. Moreover, he stressed in the letter that the two different texts submitted by the Spanish Government for Catalan and Valencian were certified “as identical”.

Nonetheless, the claims for wider rights for Spain’s language communities are still far from being fulfilled. The next step to be made is Spain’s petition to give its ‘other’ languages the status of EU official and working languages. In order to reach such status the regulation determining the Union’s linguistic regime (Regulation no. 1/1958) will have to be modified and the Spanish Government is already preparing a memorandum for this purpose, even though it has not yet made public when it will be ready, and it will most likely raise further debate. There is still uncertainty as to which name will be given to the Catalan language, although the Spanish State Secretary for European Affairs, Alberto Navarro, has already sketched out that one possibility is to refer to the language as Catalan in the international sphere while Valencian would only be used in the Valencian Country. Another option is “Catalan/Valencian”. The memorandum might include as well the petition that Catalan, Basque and Galician speakers be granted the right to address the European institutions in their language and that European regulations translated into these languages be legally valid. Moreover, the door for the inclusion of more languages in the list of “languages of the Constitution” may open again in 2007, when Romania and Bulgaria become EU Member States.

For more information, see previous Mercator-Legislation news: April, May, June, July, September and November 2004.

EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION SIGNED, LITHUANIA THE FIRST STATE TO RATIFY IT

November 2004 – One more significant step has been made along the road to European integration, with the historical signature of the European Constitution. The “Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe” was signed in Rome by the Heads of State or Government of the 25 Member States and the 3 candidate countries on 29 October and now the ratification process has started. This long process will be completed as soon as all signatory states have lodged their ratification instrument and have officially notified it, which is expected to happen by the second half of 2006. Only then will the Treaty enter into force and become effective, in principle, according to the Treaty, on 1 November 2006. However, each Member State will decide to ratify it in accordance with its own constitutional procedures and, depending on the countries' legal and historical traditions, the procedures laid down by the constitutions for this purpose are not identical. They comprise either the “parliamentary” method or the “referendum” method, or both. There may be even variants or combinations of these two methods, as in some cases some national constitutions will have to be amended.

Within this process, one state has already ratified the Treaty: Lithuania, which chose to decide it through the “parliamentary” method. The results of the vote in the Parliament, carried out on 11 November, were as follows: 84 votes for the ratification, 4 against and 3 abstentions. However, there still remain 24 more states to adopt the text, which will constitute a big challenge, as it is still uncertain what the results will be. Up to now already 9 states have announced that they will hold a referendum: the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The first referendum will be held in Spain, on 20 February 2005.

As regards linguistic references, the final text of the Treaty includes several articles, the number of which in some cases has changed as compared with the text submitted by the European Convention. The main ones refer to: the Union’s objective to “respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity“ (Article I-3(3)), the citizens’ right to address the institutions of the Union “in any of the Constitution’s languages and obtain a reply in the same language” (Articles I-10(2)(d), II-101(4), and III-128), and to the authentic texts (21) and translations of the Constitution (Article IV-448). In particular, the second paragraph of the article on the Constitution’s languages (IV-448, formerly known as Article IV-10) establishes the possibility that Member States provide a translation of the Treaty into any other languages “among those which, in accordance with their constitutional order, enjoy official status in all or part of their territory”. Further to this article, a declaration was added in the Final Act (Declaration no. 29) confirming “the attachment of the Union to the cultural diversity of Europe and the special attention it will continue to pay to [the languages mentioned in Article IV-448] and other languages. Moreover, another declaration makes reference to the Sami language (Declaration on the Sami people, no. 32).

For more information, see previous Mercator-Legislation’s News: April, May, June, July, and September 2004.

Related links...
Text of the Constitution
Official website of the Constitution, with the text in all other official languages
The ratification process in Lithuania

ACT PROMOTING FRISIAN IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN PASSED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN

November 2004 – The Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) passed on 11 November the “Act promoting Frisian in the public domain”, after having been approved by several parliamentary committees since its presentation as a bill in January this year. This new legislation is a milestone in the history of the Frisian minority as well as in the context of Germany’s minority policy, since it increases considerably the rights of Frisians. As explained by Lars Harms, the author of the act, one of the act’s most outstanding advances is that in the Preamble it acknowledges the rights of the Frisian minority as an ethnic group (Volksgruppe) in equal terms as with the rights of the Danish national minority, which is protected on the basis of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declaration. Mr. Harms clarified that it is “not only a language act or an act to promote a specific culture”, but an act protecting a recognised minority. In this sense, Frisians are given the same recognition as the other two minorities present in the border area between Germany and Denmark, the German and the Danish ones. It is the first time in the history of Frisians that their rights are concretely formulated in the form of a law and that a law explicitly recognises the freedom of each individual to Frisian affiliation.

As regards the content of the act, as revised by several parliamentary committees, several relevant details have been added: not only documents, but also application forms, supporting documents and other written sheets, may be submitted to the authorities in Frisian; public announcements may be made bilingually (in German and Frisian); and “the Land of Schleswig-Holstein shall promote that signs in (...) [certain] public buildings as well as place name signs in the district of Nordfriesland and on the island of Helgoland be also posted in bilingual form”. As stated by Lars Harms, such provisions give Frisian the highest status possible, as they place it at the same level as German, the official language.

Moreover, with this new legislation eight additional provisions of Article 10 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (RML) will be satisfied as regards the Frisian language. As for now, concerning this article (entitled “Administrative authorities and public services”), in Schleswig-Holstein Germany has only undertaken to implement for the Frisian language paragraphs 1.a.v, 4.c, and 5: “to ensure that users of RML may validly submit a document in these languages”, “compliance (...) with requests from public service employees having a knowledge of a RML to be appointed in the territory in which that language is used” and “to allow the use or adoption of family names in the RML”.

For more information about the law, see Mercator-Legislation’s News: January 2004, and www.eurolang.net.

MACEDONIA: ALBANIAN LANGUAGE TO BECOME OFFICIAL IN CERTAIN AREAS AFTER REFERENDUM

November 2004 – The referendum held on 7 November in order to vote against the recently passed Law on Territorial Organisation failed after low turnout. Voter turnout was just over 26%, thus far from reaching the minimum percentage of 50% in order for it to become valid. This controversial law was passed on 11 August after long discussions as an important step towards the implementation of the 2001 Ohrid peace agreement, which ended interethnic conflict between the ethnic Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Army (UCK) and the Macedonian security forces. The agreement foresaw redistricting and decentralisation plans, finally shaped in the Law on Territorial Organisation, increasing the rights for the country’s Albanian minority, which makes up almost a quarter of the total population, as it gives them an increased role in local government. However, many ethnic Macedonians fear that the law will lead to the federalisation of the country along ethnic lines, while minor ethnic Albanian opposition parties accuse the ethnic Albanian major party in the government coalition of not doing enough to protect Albanian interests.

One of the factors that lead to such low voter turnout was that the governing coalition, which called for a boycott for the referendum, received strong support from the international community. Representatives of the EU, for instance, called on the Macedonian citizens not to participate in the referendum, in order not to delay the road towards European integration. The OSCE, the NATO and states like the United States and France made similar calls.

With the new legislation (for the moment only available in Macedonian language) administrative boundaries have been redrawn and, as a result, Albanian has become the second official language in certain areas, including the capital Skopje, where two rural districts with an Albanian majority (Saraj and Kondovo) have been added to the existing urban districts. This has been possible on account of a series of constitutional amendments from November 2001 strengthening minority rights, particularly amendment no. 5, which stipulated a threshold of 20% of district minority population in order to introduce the language spoken by that minority as a second official language. This means that not only the city administration of Skopje and other districts will be bilingual, but also road signs and signs marking official buildings. Furthermore, in such municipalities the right to use Albanian in communication with the local administration will also be provided.

In connection with the referendum, the Macedonian Parliament voted in August to postpone local elections by one month, rescheduling them from 17 October to 21 November. They will be regulated by the also recently adopted Law on Local Elections, passed on 3 August. This new legislation, to be published in Mercator-Legislation’s next Bulletin, includes several references to minority language issues “in the local self-government units where 20% of the citizens speak an official language different from Macedonian” (Articles 16, 19, 25, 31, 50 and 54), affecting for instance the list of candidates for mayor, the public announcement of the conduct of elections or the ballot.

STILL CONSIDERABLE RESTRICTIONS FOR MINORITY LANGUAGES IN TURKEY, SAYS EU ACCESSION REPORT

October 2004 – The European Commission has made public its 2004 Regular Report on Turkey’s progress towards accession, dated 6 October (see also Mercator-Legislation’s News: November 2003). As a general conclusion, the report stresses that there are still “considerable restrictions”, in particular in the area of broadcasting and education in minority languages, while it also highlights that there has been important progress as regards the protection of cultural rights since 1999. The Constitution was amended to lift the ban on the use of Kurdish and other languages other than Turkish and legislative changes were introduced allowing for radio/TV broadcasting in, and teaching of, such languages, beginning in 2004 although on a restricted scale. The languages referred to are Kurdish, Circassian, Bosnian, Arabian, Armenian and Greek. In the case of Kurdish, the report points out that the authorities have shown greater tolerance towards its use and towards the expression of Kurdish culture in its different forms.

In the judiciary, efforts have been made to implement the political reforms introduced and to comply with international human rights conventions as well as with the standards of the European Court of Human Rights. Higher judicial bodies such as the Court of Cassation have delivered important judgements on the use of the Kurdish language, for instance overruling decisions which had banned the use of the language during campaigns for local elections, during a press conference (politicians were convicted in both cases), or on posters. However, there are still restrictions on the use of languages other than Turkish by political parties, says the report.

As concerns the area of broadcasting, the new legislative measure from January 2004 (replacing a regulation from 2002) was finally implemented in June, after some delay. Broadcasts in Bosnian, Arabic, Circassian and the Kurdish dialects of Kirmançi and Zaza are ongoing (see Mercator-Legislation’s News: June 2004). However, this implementation is still rather restrictive: only certain types of broadcasts allowed, strict time limits, strong conditions and requirements, such as to respect the principle of “the indivisible unity of the state”, etc. The Broadcasting Law (RTÜK Law) is still frequently invoked by RTÜK in order to impose heavy penalties, including the suspension of the broadcasting license. Despite having abandoned the State television monopoly and having created a strong regulatory body (RTÜK), its independence should be strengthened, according to the report.

Finally, in the field of education, the recent Regulation on the Teaching in Different Languages and Dialects Traditionally Used by Turkish Citizens in their Daily Lives, from December 2003, has allowed some improvement. Several Kurdish language schools recently opened in the Southeast of the country (and also in Istanbul), although they do not receive financial support from the state and there are restrictions concerning, in particular, the curriculum, the appointment of teachers, the timetable and the attendees.

ROMANIA: LATEST EVENTS REGARDING MINORITY LANGUAGES AND EU ACCESSION (Divers Bulletin)

October 2004 – The European Commission has made public its 2004 Regular Report on Romania’s progress towards accession, dated 6 October (see also Mercator-Legislation’s News: November 2003). As a general conclusion, the Commission considers that Romania continues to fulfil the political criteria, among which “respect for and protection of minorities”. As regards, minority language issues, the report states the following: “Relations with other minorities [apart from the Roma] did not present major problems during the reporting period. The law providing for bilingual signs has been applied, including in localities where the minority population is less than 20% (the threshold indicated in the law). After the constitutional revision introducing the right for citizens to use their mother tongue in civil court cases, Hungarian is extensively used in certain areas (see Mercator-Legislation’s News: September 2003). The law on the statute of police officers allows the recruitment of officers speaking minority languages, but the number of police officers with this skill remains relatively low. As regards pre-university teaching in minority languages, there was a slight decrease in the number of educational units and in the number of students being educated in their mother tongue during the 2003-2004 school year. The decrease could be due to demographic trends as there was no change in education policy. A private Hungarian university continued to function in Cluj, with branches in Miercurea Ciuc, Oradea and Târgu Mure. A protocol to establish two Hungarian faculties within Cluj state university was agreed at governmental level, but it has not yet been implemented. Treatment of the Csango minority has further improved and Hungarian is taught as an optional subject in 10 communes.”

As regards the latest parliamentary activity in Romania concerning minority issues, the Government approved a bill on 22 October aiming at aiding ethnic Romanians living abroad, as well as their descendants, and preserving their cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious identity. The cultural and educational benefits they would receive would be extended also to members of national minorities who emigrated from Romania, such as Jews or ethnic Germans. The bill is yet to be debated and approved by the Parliament. Furthermore, two parliamentary groups within Romania’s Chamber of Deputies, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and the group representing ethnic minorities, have stated that they will collaborate in the future legislature to draw up a law on national minorities (see Mercator-Legislation’s News: August 2004, September 2003, and February and July 2001).

Moreover, the representatives of ethnic minorities in the Parliament spoke out on October 11 against the Ministry of Education and Research’s policy regarding the publishing of schoolbooks, as they sustain that it is making children give up their education in their mother tongue. They claim that as regards minorities other than the Hungarian and German ones the Ministry has only re-published books from before 1989. For instance, in the past 15 years the state has only edited one new book in Slovakian. As a solution to fill the gap, the Serbian minority proposed to use schoolbooks from the mother country.

INTERPRETING OF UNOFFICIAL LANGUAGES IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT BANNED (Avui)

October 2004 – The President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, decided on 13 October, with the support of the Bureau, to ban interpreting from or into any unofficial language in the Parliament. This decision contrasts with a report carried out by the Parliament’s legal service, according to which there are several ways in which unofficial languages could be used and translated, in order to be “more flexible”. However, Mr. Borrell rejected the report’s proposals: despite he decided not to prevent MEPs from using unofficial languages in plenary meetings, in an attempt to avoid any more linguistic incidents, no interpreting will be provided. If MEPs use any unofficial language, the President of the Chamber will interrupt them in order to inform them that their speech will not be translated into the 20 official languages and that neither will it be recorded in the minutes of the sitting. If, nonetheless, a particular MEP wishes to proceed in the same language he/she will not be stopped. Interestingly enough, just the day after making this decision the Bureau had to make an exception, as it allowed Kurdish Layla Zana to speak in Catalan and her words were placed on record, since on the basis of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, “speeches delivered in one of the official languages shall be simultaneously interpreted into the other official languages and into any other language the Bureau may consider necessary” (Rule 138.2). Other relevant rules concerning the chamber’s linguistic regime are Rules 138.4, 201 and 202.

By contrast, as pointed out by the report of the Parliament’s legal service, one option would have been that MEPs wishing to speak in an unofficial language should ask the Parliament’s Bureau for permission in advance and submit to the interpreting service a translation of their speech into any of the official languages. In fact, this has already been done in several occasions. In line with this option, the President of the Catalan Parliament, who met with Josep Borrell on 21 October, offered the possibility that the Parliament of Catalonia provides for the translation of Catalan MEPs’ speeches into an EU official language. Another option would have been to take advantage of the existing interpreters who have perfect knowledge of unofficial languages, therefore guaranteeing interpreting into at least one official language, which would then allow relay interpreting. In the case of Catalan, this would be highly feasible, as most staff interpreters working at the Spanish language division of the Interpreting Directorate are Catalan-speakers.

As regards the linguistic regime of EU institutions, the nominee Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy, Margot Wallström, said in the Parliament on 30 September that more languages should be added to the list of EU official and working languages, although she added that the EU is to the limit of its capacities from a practical point of view. She also stated that “Member States should find the best solutions to deal with the issue of smaller linguistic groups”. Some days later she explained such words in a letter to several citizens who had protested (published in the newspaper www.diariparlem.com), by saying that her statement “had no reference at all with the absolute size of the group, but only with the status of a language which is not the majority language within a Member State and has not the status of an official language of the European Union. What I meant is that the rules to deal with linguistic issues are decided unanimously by Member States and the Commission must operate on the basis of those rules.”

SLOVENIA ADOPTS A POLEMICAL LAW ON THE PUBLIC USE OF SLOVENIAN (Lenghe.net)

October 2004 – The Slovenian Parliament adopted on 5 August 2004 a Law on the Public Use of the Slovenian Language, aiming to protect the language in front of foreign languages, and it entered into force on 20 August. The text of the law has only been published in Slovenian, but it will soon be also available in English.

As reported by Lenghe.net, this new legislation establishes the following provisions: Slovenian shall be the language to be used in oral and written form in public life situations; on the basis of the Constitution, those languages recognised as minority languages may also be used in bilingual city councils, i.e. Italian, on the coast, and Hungarian, in the north-east of the country; the name of all state bodies, local administrations, public organisations, public companies, and political parties shall be in Slovenian; the same goes for private companies, premises and shops, which may enter their names in the business register (and therefore be authorised to operate) only if their name is in Slovenian; all proceedings made by public and private legal persons shall be carried out in Slovenian; and public notices, conferences and press releases, announcements of public statements, and product labelling and instructions are to be in Slovenian.

Other provisions of the law establish (as stated by MEP Andreas Mölzer in a written question to the European Commission at the end of September) that contracts with Slovenian firms must be written only in Slovenian and only this version may be considered as the original, the managing boards of bodies, services and publicly authorised entities are responsible for ensuring that only people with appropriate knowledge of Slovenian are employed in jobs involving communication with customers, and all legal persons under private law and all natural persons must communicate with their customers in Slovenian.

This law has raised some controversy, as members of the extreme right-wing Austrian party, FPÖ (Freedom Party), have criticised it. MEP Andreas Mölzer, for instance, considers that it restrains free competition “by means of language discrimination”. In response, the spokesman of the European Commissioner for Internal Market has stated that this law is too severe and that the Commission is going to study whether it is compatible with community rules. Members of the Italian and Hungarian minorities in Slovenia have also criticised the law as it supposedly promotes a feeling against diversity.

CHANGES AFFECTING MINORITIES IN HUNGARY (Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, Hungary)

October 2004 – Several changes have been lately introduced in Hungary concerning its minority policy. As regards strictly linguistic issues, the Ministry of the Interior has compiled bilingual birth certificate forms, so that now persons declaring minority affiliation have two options: they may either apply for a Hungarian birth certificate with the phonetically written version of the name or they may apply for a bilingual one by choosing the forename of their child from a list of eligible names compiled by the national self-governments of minorities. Furthermore, the Hunnish minority is currently striving to gain recognition from the Government as a minority: if its members achieve to collect 1,000 signatures of persons declaring themselves members of this minority by the beginning of November, they may submit a petition for their recognition to the Parliament, which will then examine whether the community meets the criteria specified in the Act of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (Article 1; see the law in the link below). In the event that the Parliament decides to include this minority (number fourteenth), the law will have to be amended with a two-third parliamentary majority. As regards other issues within the framework of Hungary’s minority policy, the newly elected Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, has introduced personal and structural changes in the government: the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities will be subordinated to the Ministry for Youth, Family and Equal Opportunity Affairs, headed by Ms Kinga Goncz, and it shall continue to operate as an autonomous organ of state administration with nationwide competence; moreover, he has launched a new government programme for 2004-2006, which envisages the preservation of the culture, traditions and languages of national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary. For more information, for instance on the issue of Hungarian minority communities living abroad, see the link to Minelres, below.

SCOTTISH GAELIC LANGUAGE BILL REVISED

October 2004 – The draft Scottish Gaelic bill, which was launched in October last year and has been subject to a three-months public consultation (see Mercator-Legislation’s news: November 2003), was finally introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 27 September and it is hoped to be enacted by the summer of 2005. The new version, entitled “Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill”, has been revised on the basis of 3,400 responses submitted within the framework of the public consultation and it includes some ‘toughening up’ of the language protection measures. It is now expected that the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee will consider the terms of the Bill. The main provisions of the future law, which apply to the whole of Scotland, are: the establishment of the Gaelic development body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, on a statutory basis to oversee the development of the language; a requirement that the Bòrd exercise its functions with the aim of securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland; the introduction of a national Gaelic language plan to promote the use of the Gaelic language; the preparation of Gaelic language plans by public authorities, where appropriate, to encourage and facilitate the use of the language in public life; and a Gaelic education advisory role for Bòrd na Gàidhlig. The Bill provides similar recognition for Gaelic to that given to Welsh by the Welsh Language Act 1993 and it contributes to the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, especially in view of the recommendation issued by the Council of Europe in March this year, which contained several references to Scottish Gaelic. For the pros and cons of the Bill, see an article on the Bill published by Eurolang at www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4769, and for further information, see the Bill’s accompanying documents (the “Explanatory Notes” and the “Policy Memorandum”) included in the link to the Bill below.

Related links...
The Bill as introduced
Scottish Executive’s site on the Gaelic Language Bill
Gaelic in Scotland factsheet

EU NOMINEE COMMISSIONER FOR EDUCATION, TRAINING, CULTURE AND MULTILINGUALISM SKETCHES OUT HIS VIEWPOINTS

September 2004 – Mr. Ján Figel’ (Slovakia), nominee Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, attended a hearing before the Members of the European Parliament in Brussels on 27 September. Mr. Figel’, who admitted that the EC’s newly renamed Directorate-General for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism had not been his first choice, stressed that culture played a “crucial role” in the European integration process. As part of the general questions asked to Mr. Figel’, the designate commissioner stressed the need to invest more in education and professional training. Presenting several specific plans, Mr. Figel’ said he intended to see the new programme of lifelong education approved as soon as possible, because “this is the answer to globalisation and new technologies”. When being asked about culture, and more specifically about the EU policy on promoting cultural diversity in an international framework (WTO, UNESCO), he assured that the EU wants to play an important role within UNESCO and its talks on cultural diversity, paying attention to dialogue between cultures. Figel’ stated that “good global governance must include a clear commitment to preserve and promote cultural diversity worldwide”. He confirmed his support to the launch of negotiations with UNESCO on “a Convention for the protection of the diversity of cultural content and artistic expressions”. He finally had some words for MEP Prets’ report on cultural diversity and thanked the European Parliament “for its strong support for this UNESCO initiative”. As for multilingualism, Figel’ wants to see every student being taught in two more languages at school in addition to their mother tongue. Referring to his portfolio affecting the areas of culture, education, training, multilingualism, sports, youth and civic society) he said: "What do these areas have in common? The civic dimension and quality of life - this will be the common line stretching across my activities" Figel’ concluded.

GREEK SCHOOL IN TURKISH CYPRUS REOPENS 30 YEARS LATER (CoE)

September 2004 — For the first time in 30 years a Greek Cypriot secondary school in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus has opened its doors to pupils. The village of Rizokarpasso in the north-eastern part of Cyprus remained inhabited by Greek Cypriots even after the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974. Before the Turkish military occupation about 2,000 Greek Cypriots lived here. Thirty years later the community has declined to 500, largely because the Turkish Cypriot authorities closed the village school and many children were forced to travel to the Greek Cypriot south for their education. Once there, the Turkish authorities prevented them from returning home. Now, Mehmet Ali Talat, the head of Turkish Cypriot community, has decided to reopen the village school. Of the 17 educators selected to teach at the school, seven already arrived and started classes in accordance with the first day's schedule which included lessons in French, Greek and religion. Greek Cypriot Polakis Sarris, commissioner in charge of humanitarian affairs, said to the European media that for 30 years the Greek Cypriot community has been living "under threats, afraid to speak freely, even among themselves". With Turkey’s request for European Union membership at stake, the re-opening of this school allows Turkey to earn political credit from Brussels and the Council of Europe which had already put pressure on Ankara to re-open the school. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis, welcomed the re-opening of the Greek school in Rizokarpasso and he said that “this is a very positive step on behalf of the leaders of the Turkish Cypriot community. It will inspire more confidence between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island”.

Related links...
Council of Europe Press release
Language legislation in Cyprus
Information on Cyprus – Université Laval (text in French)

SPAIN “WISHES” TO MAKE BASQUE, GALICIAN AND CATALAN, BUT ALSO VALENCIAN, EU OFFICIAL LANGUAGES (Avui)

September 2004 – The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, announced in a press conference that he sent a letter on 13 September to the EU, in which he expressed the Spanish Government’s “desire” that Basque, Galician, Catalan and Valencian be recognised as EU official languages. Nonetheless, he immediately underlined that this is just a possibility and that the Executive “has not formalized a proposal yet”. In the letter, Mr. Moratinos also asked the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, to suggest him different ways to comply with the commitment expressed in the Final Act of the EU’s Inter-Governmental Conference of 17-18 June: to pay “special attention” to the languages which enjoy official status in all or part of the territory of Member States in order to contribute to fulfilling the objective of respecting the Union's rich cultural and linguistic diversity (see Mercator-Legislation’s News: June 2004). As regards the Catalan/Valencian issue, Moratinos’ announcement provoked a political storm among Spanish, Catalan and Valencian party leaders, with division of opinions even within PP and PSOE, the two parties which have traditionally promoted language policies aiming at dividing the language. Moratinos stated that the reason for their differentiation is strictly legal, as he said he just abides to the name mentioned in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, while a high representative of his own party (PSOE) in the Congreso later added that Catalan and Valencian are “scientifically” the same language. By contrast, the Spanish Government has no problem to use different names when referring to Spanish in two basic legal texts: Castilian (as stated in the Spanish Constitution) and Spanish (as stated in the European constitutional treaty). It should also be pointed out that the Spanish Constitutional Court already solved the language unity issue in 1997, when it concluded that “Valencian (...) may also be referred to as ‘Catalan’”. The same conclusion has been also recently reached by the Valencian Higher Court of Justice in four different decisions (see Mercator-Legislation’s News: August 2004). In an effort to find a solution to the political controversy, two days after his announcement the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated his commitment to solve the conflict and pointed out that one possible solution would be to refer to the language as Catalan/Valencian.

TOWN SIGNS IN LOW GERMAN FOR THE FIRST TIME (Plattdütskbüro)

September 2004 – As reported by the Plattdütskbüro, the Low German office in East Friesland (Land of Lower Saxony), two towns have recently introduced bilingual town signs in High German and Low German: Auerk and Grootheid (Aurich and Grossheide in High German). This is the first time that Low German is being used in street signs, as it already happens with Frisian, despite only affecting the signs posted at the entrance and exit of these two towns. However, there are other municipalities which will also follow the same measure soon: Ritterhude, Lütetsburg and Hinte, and several others will discuss the possibility of implementing it as well, even some from outside Lower Saxony. This milestone has been achieved thanks to the efforts of the organisations Niedersächsischer Heitmatbund and Ostfriesische Landschaft (the organisation in charge of the Plattdütskbüro) and it will contribute to make the Low German language more visible in the region, both for tourists and for the local people, therefore increasing their language awareness. Moreover, in the words of the Plattdütskbüro, the mayors of these two towns “have opened the path, so that the next time the Language Charter [European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages] is updated, Low Germans could see how the introduction of bilingual town signs is generally adopted”.

Related links...
Ostfriesische Landschaft – Plattdütskbüro
Niedersächsischer Heimatbund
Mercator-Legislation’s Dossier on Low German

TURKEY FAILS TO PROTECT ITS MINORITIES ACCORDING TO A RECENT REPORT (Minority Rights Group)

September 2004 –Turkey's treatment of minorities is still below the required standards for EU accession in accordance with a submission to the EU and the Turkish Government suggesting that reforms keep on unimplemented. This is the conclusion of the non-governmental organization Minority Rights Group International (MRG). 'Beyond a façade of reform which looks progressive on paper, general human and minority rights practice and implementation still falls far short of standards expected of European Union Members', stated the organisation. Actually, the European Commission is currently writing a report on Turkey, which will be finalised this month and, on the basis of it, the heads of government will decide in the EU Council of December 2004 if they open the negotiations with Turkey on membership. Regarding language rights MRG emphasizes that Kurds, Laz and Circassians have requested several times their languages at schools or their languages being an optional subject. However, they have been denied even in regions where they are a majority. As for the political participation, there are restrictions regarding the possibility of minority representation, and the usage of minority languages in political activities under the Political Parties Law is banned. In a list of recommendations, MRG calls upon the Government of Turkey to maintain its obligations under constitutional and international law including Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which states that: ‘In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language’. Turkey is also urged to sign and ratify without reservation the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on National Minorities (FCNM).

THE CATALAN GOVERNMENT FINES SPANISH POST FOR USING ONLY SPANISH

September 2004 — The Department of Trade, Tourism and Consumption of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan government) imposed a sanction of 30,000 Euros to the Spanish post for not having complied with the Catalan Act on language policy of 1998. In accordance with the Catalan government, the huge amount of money to be paid aims at serving as an example to prevent some other public and private companies from not observing the law. The Spanish post did not comply with several articles of the Act, such as the 15, 30, 31 or 32. For instance, article 32 establishes that “permanent signs and posters with general information and documents offering services provided to users and consumers in establishments open to the public shall be at least drawn up in Catalan”. The sanction to this company is the result of over 70 complaints of Catalan citizens denouncing the lack of signage and documents written, at least, in Catalan in the post offices, as set in the law. The complaints to the Spanish post also referred to the substitution of the previous bilingual company sign for the current logo, Correos, only written in Spanish. Nevertheless, the current trademark of the Spanish post cannot be not be penalised since the regulation is not applicable to trademarks, commercial names or to signs protected by industrial property legislation. In spite of this, the Spanish Parliament passed a green paper urging the Spanish government to adopt measures regarding the trademark of the company, since it does not reflect the multilingualism existing in the Spanish territory. In general terms, it is quite significant that since 2003 over 400 language complaints affecting several companies have been submitted to the Catalan administration. Most of these complaints come from citizens and organisations working on the promotion and defence of linguistic rights and the 90% of them refer to the scarce presence of Catalan language in signage, labelling, advertising and general documents offered to the public.

MINORITIES IN ARMENIA SCEPTICAL ABOUT NEW DRAFT LAW AIMING TO PROTECT THEM (www.iwpr.net)

August 2004 – According to a brief report from the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), Armenia’s minority communities have shown no interest in a proposed new law intended to protect their rights, and some are even strongly against it. In fact, the Armenian government has already attempted to pass a similar law before, but it was also rejected by the communities concerned. After that, in January this year, the government established a new Department for National Minorities and Religion, which started drafting the new bill, and as soon as the text is completed it will be sent for review at the Council of Europe and then submitted to Parliament. If eventually passed, it will be Armenia’s only legal act to regulate minority rights, as the constitution does not contain any reference to such rights and the laws on education and language barely mention them (see Armenia’s first report on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; link below). The object of the future law is to regulate the rights of minorities in the areas of language, education and religious practice and it intends to be in line with the Council of Europe’s resolution on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Armenia, although this resolution is not binding but has just the status of a recommendation. Furthermore, according to a member of the team drafting the law, it “may set a positive example for other countries of the region”, since none of them has any such law. Although in the last Soviet census of 1989 minorities in Armenia accounted for 6.7 % of the population, they now represent 2.2 %, a fall which is mainly due to emigration and to the flight of Azerbaijani population. There are more than 20 ethnic groups in Armenia, among which mainly Assyrians, Kurds, Yezidis (Kurdish-speaking but non-muslim), Greeks, Jews and Russians, and they are very sceptical about the advantages of the bill; they mostly prefer to stay as they are and not to be positively discriminated as they believe this will lead to persecution and discrimination.

MPs OF NATIONAL MINORITIES ASK FOR A MINORITY LAW IN ROMANIA (Divers Bulletin)

August 2004 — Representatives of national minorities in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies proposed the enactment of a special law on national minorities. The aim of this law would be to define the statute of these minorities and the concept of ethnic minority, and to recognise them. Moreover, the law is also aimed at defining the meaning and role of the Council of National Minorities of Romania, a body set up in 1993 functioning as a consultative body of the Government in co-ordination with the Ministry of Public Information after a governmental decision of 2001. Parliamentarians also drew an alarm signal for the education in the mother tongue, stressing the need of ensuring teachers for the schools with a reduced number of children. In accordance with the information published in Divers Bulletin no. 28(111), in Romania there are 19 ethnic minorities officially recognised, and 18 of them with one representative in the Parliament. According to the same sources, MP Varujan Pambuccian, representative of the Armenian minority in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, said that “this law would give a clear statute to our organization”.

MALTESE LANGUAGE ACT ADOPTED

August 2004 – After spending several months discussing the bill to promote the Maltese language, the Maltese Parliament finally passed the text on 14 July in its 3rd reading. The President of Malta, Edward Fenech Adami, assented to it six days later. Its wording is essentially the same as the bill submitted for discussion in November last year and has only been slightly modified. The object of the law is “to provide for the establishment of the National Council for the Maltese Language and other organs to promote the national language and to provide the necessary means to achieve this aim”. For more information, see Mercator-Legislation News: November 2003.

Related links...
Text of the act (in English)
Information about the Maltese language
Malta Language Board

BASQUE GOVERNMENT PRESENTS THE THIRD NORMALISATION LANGUAGE PLAN

August 2004 — The Basque Councillor for Culture Miren Azkarate presented the 3rd Normalisation Language Plan, aimed at intensifying the Basque language in the administrative area of the Basque Country. Currently, the Basque language is the working language in 19 out of the 549 administrative sections of the Basque Government. In accordance with this plan, which it is expected to come into force in September 2004, 31 administrative sections will become bilingual in 2007, and Basque will be the working language in a total of 50 sections by 2007. Regarding the legal context, the 3rd Plan is based on the Basic Act 10/1982, of November 24th, on the Normalisation of Basque language and also in the 86/1997 Decree, which was passed in application of this Law and regulates the normalisation process of the use of Basque language within the public administration of the Basque Country. In accordance with this Decree: “In order to implement the language normalisation process within the Basque civil service, each administration is required to accept and apply a normalisation plan for the use of Basque by implementing the corresponding measures”. The main objectives of the Plan are to make of the Basque language the spoken and written language within the administration when dealing with the public, to make Basque language turn into the communication language with other administrations, and finally, to promote the use of Basque language within the civil servants.

EU OFFICIAL STATUS FOR WELSH REQUESTED

August 2004 — The Welsh national party Plaid Cymru requests now an official status for Welsh within the European Union. This party urges now the British Foreign Minister Jack Straw to give Welsh official Treaty language status. With this status the European Constitutional Treaty should be published in Welsh as an authentic version and the right of petition could be done in Welsh. Members of this Welsh party have already started a campaign to make the British Foreign Minister support the language in Europe before the referendum on the European constitution takes place in 2005. In accordance with the press release published by Plaid Cymru "with Ireland and now Spain pursuing this, then Jack Straw really has no excuse whatever not to fight for Welsh to be given official status in Europe." The debate on which languages can be used in meetings of the European institutions has recently been reopened when Ireland's Prime Minister announced his government would be requesting for the official status for the Irish language. Moreover, the Spanish government has announced that as part of the same negotiations they would seek official recognition for the Catalan, Basque and Galician languages. All these claims could change the final agreement made upon the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) of 17-18 June (see previous news of Mercator-Legislation).

Related links...
Related article (Eurolang)
Welsh national party Plaid Cymru website
Outcomes of the IGC (see annex 17)

CATALAN / VALENCIAN: THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT’S POLICY CONTRADICTS SEVERAL VALENCIAN HIGHER COURT DECISIONS

August 2004 – The recently-elected Spanish Executive (PSOE) does not seem to have much will to solve the Catalan / Valencian language unity issue. Quite the contrary, like the previous government (PP), it encourages language division and confrontation, which infringes Article 7.1.b of the European Charter for Regional Minority Languages, as denounced by the Observatory of the Catalan Language. Such article states that administrative divisions must not constitute an obstacle to the promotion of the regional or minority language in question. However, the Spanish Government has recently published a summary of the European constitutional treaty in two versions: one in Catalan and one in Valencian, although both texts are nearly identical because the Valencian one follows the normative grammar, the so-called “Normes de Castelló”, according to which Valencian is a dialectal variety of the Catalan language. They are both available in Moncloa’s website. A Moncloa’s spokesperson has declared that the Government does not wish to take a stand on the language polemic and that that is why nowhere it is stated in the text the language it is written in, in spite of the fact that the link to the text makes it quite explicit. The Government just limits itself to “follow the law”, as the Valencian Country’s Statute of Autonomy gives Valencian official status without making clear whether it is a dialect or a language. However, such debate, which has been solved in scientific circles since a long time ago, has also been solved by the Higher Court of Justice of the Valencian Country, as on 9 July it urged the Valencian Government to accept the degree of Catalan filology in the requirements for secondary and primary school teaching positions, therefore recognising that, despite the difference in the names, Catalan is the same as Valencian. In fact, the same court had already stated in four previous decisions (the last one in April this year) that the degree of Catalan filology “widely guarantees” the knowledge of Valencian. For further information, see Mercator-Legislation’s News: March and January 2004 and December and June 2003.

CoE: LAST RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS ON HUNGARY, SWEDEN, SLOVENIA, DENMARK AND OTHERS

July 2004 – Several new recommendations and reports have been published in the last months within the framework of the monitoring of the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. As regards the Language Charter, the Council of Ministers has adopted several recommendations on its application in several states: the United Kingdom (24 March, as already reported by Mercator-Legislation; see previous news), Denmark (19 May), Slovenia (9 June) and Hungary (30 June). As for Denmark, the Council calls for the practical implementation of the Charter as regards German, especially in the fields of administration, justice and the media, and it reminds the possibility of applying the Charter on the Faroe Islands and on Greenland. Furthermore, Denmark issued its second periodical report on the Framework Convention on 14 May. As for Slovenia, the Council asks the authorities to reconsider its position towards the Croatian language, to clarify the issue of the traditional presence of the Serbian and Bosnian languages, to apply Part II of the Charter (Objectives and Principles) to the German language, and to engage in a process of development of Romany as a written language in close co-operation with the representatives of all the Roma communities present in Slovenia as well as with the other European States concerned. This last recommendation goes also for Hungary, which should also “improve the present model of teaching regional or minority languages”, “take further positive measures to encourage the use of minority languages in judicial proceedings and in dealings with the administration”, or “ strengthen the presence of minority languages in the media”. Both Slovenia and Hungary have also just submitted their second periodical reports on the Framework Convention (on 6 July and 5 May, respectively). In the case of Sweden, it released its second periodical report on the implementation of the Charter on 30 June. The report is divided in three parts, each one devoted to a language (Sami, Finnish and Meänkieli or Tornedal Finnish); as for the most important legal developments, Sweden highlights the adoption in December 1999 of the “Government Bill 1998/99:143 National Minorities”. This text can be found in Mercator-Legislation’s “Languages and Legislation” website section. Other reports and resolutions within the framework of the Framework Convention have also lately been issued concerning: Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy and Moldova.

OSCE DENOUNCES LINGUISTIC CLEANSING IN TRANSDNIESTRIA, MOLDOVA

July 2004 – A special OSCE Permanent Council meeting has been called for Thursday 22 July to examine the crisis in Moldova, where the authorities in the breakaway region of Transdniestria are ordering the closure of schools that teach the state language in Latin script. Moreover, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Rolf Ekeus, commented on the closure of the Moldavian school placed in Tiraspol, in the region of Transdniestria, stressing that “the forced closure […] is scandalous and irresponsible”. The Tiraspol School was forced to close last week when the armed police removed the school’s furniture and equipment. Some parents and teachers tried to block the police taking the material but they were also removed by the armed force. The action is especially relevant since it occurred one day after the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities visited the school; now, the school remains surrounded by police and the access is blocked. According to the OSCE, most likely, the action is designed to force the closure of all schools in the region which teach Moldovan/Romanian in Latin script. In accordance with the data given by OSCE, an estimated 40% of the population in the Transdniestrian region has Moldovan/Romanian as their mother tongue and approximately 5,000 children have been studying the language in Latin script for over ten years. However, Transdniestrian authorities claim that Moldovan is the only official language of the region when it is written in Cyrillic script, thus obstructing the efforts of the OSCE, which in 2003 brokered a formula to allow the schools to be legally registered with local authorities in Transdniestria.

UN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2004 CENTRES ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY

July 2004 – The United Nations calls for the respect of cultural diversity in the Human Development report 2004, recently published. The report, elaborated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), together with some independent experts, claims that “cultural differences necessarily lead to social, economic and political conflict or that inherent cultural rights should supersede political and economic ones”. The report aims at being an independent study intended to stimulate debate and discussion around an important issue, not a statement of United Nations or UNDP policy, and it focuses on cultural liberty and the role of diversity for human development, on religion, cultural democracies and linguistic rights of minorities, taking into account the policies on legal pluralism and on the recognition of cultural difference. In accordance with this, the report stresses that “succeeding is not simply a question of legislative and policy changes, necessary though they be. Constitutions and legislation that provide protections and guarantees for minorities, indigenous people and other groups are a critical foundation for broader freedoms”. Regarding the legal aspects to be borne in mind, the report recalls that “certain religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous groups feel alienated from the larger legal system, for a number of reasons. As for minority languages and policies on the use of multiple languages the report points out that “language conflicts can be managed by providing some spheres in which minority languages are used freely and by giving incentives to learn other languages, especially a national or official language”. Moreover, the UNDP report contains special contributions by the Nobel Peace Prize winners Shirin Ebadi, Nelson Mandela and John Hume, among others, where they urge governments to recognise and protect all identities in order to get sustainable societies. The report concludes that “the building of humane and just societies demands adequate recognition of the importance of freedoms in general, which include cultural liberty”.

IRELAND WILL SEEK OFFICIAL AND WORKING LANGUAGE STATUS FOR IRISH IN THE EU (Irish Times)

July 2004 – The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, announced on 14 July that the Irish Government is to start discussions with the European Commission and with other Member States with a view to reach full recognition for Irish in the EU, as both an official and working language. Such move represents a turnabout in the government’s attitude towards this matter, as during its six months’ EU presidency it has not supported the strong demands from a majority of Irish MP’s and organisations. In order to achieve this objective the Irish government will focus the discussions on securing agreement on the practical modalities, on the basis of the EEC Regulation 1/1958, which is the legal instrument that governs the EU Institutions’ official and working language regime. According to such regulation, Member states which have more than one official language may request that its official languages be included in the EU’s language regime as official and working languages; however, Ireland did not request this when it joined the Common Market in 1973 and has not attempted to do so ever since. Now, with the likely new status, EU laws and official documents will be issued in Irish and MEPs will have direct translation in all committee and plenary meetings in the European Parliament, in addition to the already granted language rights on account of its “Treaty language” status. Such status provides that the European Constitutional Treaty is to be published in Irish as an authentic version and that citizens have the right to address the EU institutions in Irish and have an answer in the same language. According to the pressure group Stádas, whose campaign calling for the full status of Irish in the EU has received a huge support from the public, this historical step will contribute enormously to the language’s prestige and it will also increase its use.

REPORT ON LANGUAGE RIGHTS IN EUSKAL HERRIA PRESENTED (Behatokia.org)

July 2004 – Behatokia, the Basque Language Observatory for Linguistic Rights, has presented its 2003 annual report on the situation of language rights in Euskal Herria, i.e. the Basque-speaking areas (literally, the country of Euskara), and its conclusions are not very encouraging as they confirm the main conclusions drawn in Behatokia’s two previous reports. In general terms, the present report, which is based on an analysis of 737 cases, underlines that language rights are systematically infringed in the three administrative divisions in which Basque is spoken: the Basque Autonomous Community, the Autonomous Community of Navarre, and the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in France. Behatokia claims that in the great majority of cases the government administration does not even comply with the legislation in force and that infringement takes place at all levels of public administration, mentioning for instance the Basque Autonomous Community’s ministries of Health, Justice and Home Affairs. In particular, the report draws attention to the cases of Navarre and France: Navarre is considered to be “the counter-model of Europe”, because its government has set out a reduction of legally recognised linguistic rights instead of granting wider rights, and France does not recognise legal rights for the Basque-speaking community and neither has it signed and/or ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. In the opinion of Behatokia, this situation worsens the speakers’ perception of their right to use their own language in all spheres of life, which makes them regard this situation of “inferiority and legal subordination” as “normal”. In order to reverse this trend, Behatokia proposes to establish a specific judicial-administrative mechanism to guarantee language rights and that the official status of the language be recognised in all Basque territories.

CATALAN WILL BE AGAIN AN OBLIGATORY SUBJECT IN SECONDARY SPANISH SCHOOLS OF ANDORRA

July 2004 – Catalan will be an obligatory subject in the Spanish secondary schools of Andorra. This was the final outcome of the meeting between the Minister on Education, Culture and Sports of Andorra, Xavier Montané, the Andorran Secretary of State on Education Josep Anton Bardina and the Spanish Minister of Education and Science, María Jesús Sansegundo. During the meeting, the representatives of both governments also agreed on the possibility of opening new educational Spanish centres depending on demand. In accordance with the conclusions of the meeting, Catalan will be taught at secondary-school level four hours per week and the existent agreement signed on December 2003 will therefore have to be revised and amended. The agreement is just pending of ratification by the Spanish and Andorran parliaments and will be applicable from the next academic year 2004-2005. However, before the final approval, a mixed commission will be constituted in order to agree on the final wording. The modification consists of an increase of teaching hours of the subject ‘Andorran training’, which actually is divided in two main areas: Catalan language and Andorran history, as the agreement signed in December 2003 established only three hours of Catalan language teaching and, according to sources of the Andorran government, it was not compulsory at secondary-school level. By contrast, the former agreement signed in 1993 did not establish a specific number of teaching hours of Andorran training. The newly signed agreement is seen by the Andorran government as ‘positive’ and it only brings some adjustments.

LOWER SAXONY: MOTION FOR THE PROMOTION OF LOW GERMAN AND SATERFRISIAN AT SCHOOL (Plattnet Nachrichten)

June 2004 – “Low German and Saterfrisian must be preserved, promoted and, in the long term, reinforced as components of Lower Saxony’s identity”. This mandate has been unanimously adopted by the Parliament of the Land of Lower Saxony (Germany) in the face of the poor condition these two languages are in. As the Parliament’s motion claims, in spite of the ratification of the Language Charter by Germany and the Land’s school decree of 1997 (entitled “The region in the classroom”), Low German and Saterfrisian (or East Frisian) are nearly inexistent in Lower Saxony’s general education schools and the number of Low German-speaking teachers is decreasing drastically; as a consequence, the status of these two languages in schools is clearly going backwards. In order to reverse this pitiful situation, the motion adopted by the Land’s Parliament puts forward seven measures to be implemented by the Government, which are the following: to create the conditions schools need in order to offer classes to learn these two languages, to initiate language-learning projects in the different school types and in several school grades, to produce class materials and to test and introduce them in the classroom, to provide or reinforce expert assistance for schools, to coordinate curricular and extra-curricular activities at regional level, to stimulate and promote the networking of pre-school and school initiatives for the learning of Low German, and to promote the involvement of adults who are proficient in these two languages in school activities.

PROPOSAL ON THE OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF ASTURIAN LANGUAGE PRESENTED TO THE ASTURIAN PARLIAMENT

Last week, the Asturian organisation Ensame pa la Oficialidá presented a formal proposal on the officiality of Asturian language to the Junta General of Asturias (the Asturian parliament), with the aim of including it to the possible new Statute of Autonomy of Asturies. More concretely, the Ensame pa la Oficialidá asks for the inclusion of a section recognising the Asturian language officially in the Asturian territory, specifying that ‘the language of Asturies is Asturian’ and that ‘the Asturian Government and the Junta General shall promote the use of the Asturian language in all the public, cultural, educational and informative domains of life’. In accordance with the draft section, the Asturian Government and the Junta General will guarantee the normal and official use of Spanish and Asturian languages and the adequate means in order to ensure its knowledge, among other aspects. Moreover, the proposal of this organisation also sets that ‘nobody can be discriminated on the ground of language’. This proposal stands for an important step for the Asturian language, in a moment where the possibility of amending the Statute of Autonomy of Asturies is currently being discussed. Today, the only recognition of Asturian is regulated by the Law 1/1998 on the Use and Promotion of the Asturian Language, which entitles Asturian citizens to “use Bable / Asturian and express themselves in it, orally and in writing”. The possibility of having a new political statute which can recognize the Asturian identity and language can put an end to the lack of official recognition of this language. According to Ensame pa la Oficialidá, ‘the need to recognise the right of Asturian citizens to have an official status for their language is a basic right which cannot be conditioned or limited’.

EU’S LANGUAGE REGIME UNSATISFACTORILY IMPROVED

June 2004 – The expectations laid upon the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) of 17-18 June as regards the possible recognition of Basque, Galician and Catalan and eventually other non-state languages as EU Constitution’s languages have been finally frustrated. Instead, the EU Heads of State or Government have solely agreed to allow the possibility of producing official translations of the constitutional treaty “into any other languages as determined by Member States among those which, in accordance with their constitutional order, enjoy official status in all or part of their territory”. Thus will be the wording of a second paragraph which has been added to Article IV-10. Further to this new paragraph a very general declaration has been included in the Final Act of the Conference explaining that this paragraph “contributes to fulfilling the objective of respecting the Union's rich cultural and linguistic diversity as set forth in paragraph 3 of Article I-3 of the Treaty” and that the Union will continue to pay “special attention (…) to these and other languages”. Moreover, it is stated that those Member States wishing to provide a translation should “communicate to the Council, within six months from the date of the signature of the Treaty, the language or languages into which translations of the Treaty will be made.” Therefore, non-state languages will not be given ‘treaty language status’ but only ‘translation status’, which means that language rights have been restricted inasmuch as the translation of the Constitution into non-state languages will not be authentic and the speakers of these languages will not be allowed to exercise the petition right in their mother tongue. Such meagre outcome may be due to several factors: the weak political pressure made by the Spanish Government, the reluctance shown by the Irish Presidency and even by some states –such as France–, the short time available for the negotiations, or perhaps all at once. (See Mercator-Legislation News: April and May 2004).

“BOLZANO/BOZEN DECLARATION” NOW PRESENTED TO THE EU-INSTITUTIONS AND STATES

June 2004 – The “Bolzano/Bozen Declaration on the Protection of Minorities in the Enlarged European Union” is being now presented to the EU-institutions and to all its member states for urgent consideration, as it contains several proposals, some concerning regional and minority languages. This text, symbolically signed on 1 May, has been drafted by a group of 16 independent experts in the field as an additional outcome of a conference held in Bolzano/Bozen/Bulsan, Italy, on 30-31 January, entitled “Minority Protection and the EU: The Way Forward”. The conference joined a range of experts, policymakers and NGO representatives to discuss the future of minority protection in the EU after the enlargement, taking into account that in the past decade the EU has set a more demanding standard to its new member states than to the old ones (see Mercator-Legislation News: April 2003) and that one of the questions raised now is whether minority protection will “vanish from the EU “scene”” or it will be transformed into concrete legal instruments. In this sense, the declaration puts forward several proposals to strengthen the existing minority protection policy in order to: improve monitoring of candidate states, integrate minority protection into EU monitoring of human rights within member states, strengthen the EU as a community of values, improve the cooperation among the EU, Council of Europe (CoE) and OSCE, and bring to life the new constitutional motto “united in diversity”. As regards the improvement of the EU-CoE-OSCE cooperation, the signatories recommend the European Commission to take into account the findings and developments in the framework of the two principal CoE instruments––the Language Charter and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. And in relation to the constitutional value of being “united in diversity”, the declaration states that the Commission “should propose a multi-year program for linguistic diversity with funds earmarked for regional and minority languages” and that the current EU’s language policy (e.g. the Lingua programme and the Action Plan on Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity) “seriously dilutes the minority component”.

LANGUAGE LEGISLATION IN THE TURKISH MEDIA IS BEING FINALLY IMPLEMENTED (Turkish Daily News)

The first TV broadcasts in minority languages in Turkey took place on Monday 7th, on channel 3 of the public Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT3). The programs will include news, music and documentaries. Broadcasts in “local languages and dialects” will include Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian), Kurdish (Kirmachi), Circassian and Arabic. Broadcasts in Laz and Kurdish (Zaza) will soon follow. According to regulations, broadcasts will be at most 60 minutes a day and five hours a week on the radio and 45 minutes a day and four hours a week on TV. TRT will inform the media about the broadcasts. Broadcasts in “local languages and dialects” will be made from TRT3 and Radio-1, and will be made on weekdays, with Bosnian on Monday, Arabic on Tuesday, Kurdish (Kirmanchi) on Wednesday, Circassian on Thursday and Kurdish (Zaza) on Friday. TRT General Director Senol Demiroz said he hoped these multicultural broadcasts, in accordance with the principles set out by the Constitution, would benefit the country. Meanwhile, the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) has speeded up the preparations for control of broadcasts in the expectation that soon private channels will start broadcasting in “traditional local dialects and languages”. Concerning the laws regulating the radio and television institutions, the most important document is the Constitution. On the basis of the Constitution, audio-visual broadcasting in Turkey is regulated by the "Law on the Establishment and Broadcasting of Radio Stations and Television Channels" No. 3984 passed in 1994 and amended in August 2002 This law has certain restrictions on the subject of providing a balanced distribution in broadcasts. According to these, the private radio stations and television channels have to include education and culture programs as well as taking care for the Turkish language with the objective of preserving Turkish and supporting the proper use of Turkish by the society. In accordance with article 4 of this law “the broadcasts shall be in Turkish language. However, it may also be broadcast for the purpose of teaching foreign languages, which may have contribution to the formation of universal culture and scientific works or transmitting music or news in those languages”. This law was developed through the regulation on the Language of Radio and Television broadcasts, adopted in December 2002.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OTHER THAN SPANISH WILL BE USED IN THE SPANISH SENATE AND IN OTHER INSTITUTIONS

June 2004 – The political climate in Spain is allowing for some advance of the claims for wider linguistic rights, especially in the area of public administration. As sketched out a few weeks ago by the President of the Senate (see Mercator-Legislation News: April 2004), the introduction of multilingualism in the upper chamber is a matter of political will and now this will has become reality with the adoption on 25 May of a motion (no. 9) establishing that the Standing Orders of the Senate be reformed before the end of the year “in order to enable the use in its sittings of the languages which have official status in any Autonomous Community”, i.e. Galician, Basque and Catalan, with the vote of all parties except PP (Popular Party). Moreover, the Senate urges the Spanish Government to promote multilingualism in the State General Administration and in the European Union. In particular it refers to the use of the co-official languages in the State General Administration’s institutional image, in its documental production and in its printed material, as well as in its websites (see News: June 2003); it also calls for any necessary measures to ensure the right of any person to apply for their passport to be issued in the two co-official languages of their Autonomous Community, in accordance with European rules. As regards the possibility that Basque, Galician and Catalan be included in Article IV-10 of the future European Constitution, therefore granting citizens who speak these languages the right to address the European institutions in their tongue and receive a reply in the same language, the Senate urges the Government to “request the European Union for an adequate recognition in the framework of its language regime for the rest of the languages which have a co-official status in one or more Autonomous Communities” and it gives “support to the efforts the Government is making” for the recognition of this right. Further to this call, another motion (no. 8) was also adopted urging the Government “to defend the recognition of the State’s official languages, along with Spanish, in the European and international institutions”.

Related links...
Texts of both motions (nos. 662/000009 and 662/000008), in Spanish
Senate’s website
Article: “Multilingualism in the Spanish State” (in Spanish)

SEVERAL CALLS FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE BRETON LANGUAGE

May 2004 – The Breton language is highly unprotected and its discrimination has been denounced during the last weeks by several specialists and organisations. For instance, a series of events (conferences, debates, workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations, etc.) were organised by Breton cultural organisations –the collective “Unité dans la diversité”, “Unity in diversity”– in Nantes, on the occasion of the UNESCO World Forum on Human Rights, held also in Nantes on 16-19 May. The Forum included a round-table entitled “Languages, cultural diversity and human rights, which recognition for language and cultural diversity?” to discuss the issue of language rights, also organised by “Unité dans la diversité” with the sponsorship of the French Committee of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL). The participants stressed the lack of legal status of the Breton language by stating the need that France ratifies the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and signs the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, as well as the need for language legislation, which is an indispensable basis for the promotion of and support to the language; the need to work more closely with the Welsh Language Board was also highlighted, as the language policy of the Welsh government is regarded as a model to be followed. As Eurolang reports, the Breton regional council is currently developing a Breton language strategy which also includes the territory of Loire Atlantique, the Department sectioned off from the rest of Brittany in 1941. Moreover, two petitions have been launched calling for the official recognition of the languages in France at European level and denouncing the current state of discrimination of the Breton language; they can be both signed at the website of Eurominority (www.eurominority.org). Also on the other side of the sea, in Wales, there have been initiatives of support to the Breton language: by the Gwynedd Council in North Wales and by the Association Wales-Brittany (Cymdeithas Cymru-Llydaw).

Related links...
UNESCO Forum on Human Rights
Unité dans la diversité (in French)
Regional Dossier on Brittany, by Mercator-Education

THE 10th LINGUAPAX CONGRESS WARNS ABOUT THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE DIVERSITY IN SAFEGUARDING SUSTAINABILITY AND PEACE

May 2004 – The Linguapax Institute, the international non-governmental organisation born as a UNESCO initiative and aimed at promoting peace through the respect of linguistic diversity and the promotion of plurilingual education, held on May 20-23 its 10th Congress within the framework of the Universal Forum of Cultures - Barcelona 2004. The event, which gathered a wide variety of outstanding experts concerned about the need to preserve the languages of the world and counter the processes of language shift that are taking place worldwide, analysed the current situation of many different languages (such as Quechua, Guarani, Maori, Basque, Catalan, Romani, Amazigh, pidgins, creoles or Esperanto) and countries (South Africa, Guatemala, Eritrea, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Morocco, Ireland, Cameroon, Venezuela, China, Italy, Canada, etc.), and it was based on three main thematic axes –language diversity, sustainability and peace– and five specific areas of study: models of language policy and planning, language revitalization and standardisation, balance of the current sociolinguistic research, language law and language rights, and agents in favour of language diversity. The texts of the working sessions will be soon available in the website of the Linguapax Institute. As for the workshops devoted to language law and rights, several themes were approached, as for instance the European scenario, the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, the deaf community, etc. Moreover, in the framework of the congress, other events took place: the Linguapax 2004 Awards were given to Joshua Fishman and Fernand de Varennes (for more information, see the website of Linguapax) and a new interesting website was presented (www.amarauna-languages.com). The theme of language diversity is also present in the Forum in an audiovisual exhibition called “Voices”.

Related links...
Linguapax
Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights
“Voices” exhibition

SECOND PERIODICAL REPORT ON THE CHARTER BY GERMANY PRESENTED

May 2004 – Germany’s second periodical report on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (2 April 2004) showed the contribution of this country to its regional and minority languages. In the text, Germany draws attention to the fact that the available human and financial resources have been allocated to carry out the respective implementation measures. In the report, Germany contests the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers and includes contains some comments by the minorities or language groups concerned, such as the Danish minority, which apart from describing what has been achieved also considers that the implementation of the Charter can play a decisive role in the preservation of the Danish language in the Land of Schleswig-Holstein. Among other aspects, the report also outlines that the number of speakers of Low German (a regional language within the meaning of the Charter) continues to decrease, due to the fact that “the Low German dialects no longer fulfil any public function”. As for the minority languages protected by Germany, these are the languages of national minorities and other ethnic groups traditionally resident in the country, i.e. Danish, Sorbian (Upper Sorbian of Upper Lusatia and Lower Sorbian –or Wendish– of Lower Lusatia), Frisian (North Frisian and Saterland Frisian) and Romany (of the German Sinti and Roma).

BILINGUAL ROAD SIGNS IN THE PROVINCE OF UDINE SOON (Lenghe.net)

May 2004 – Most of the road signs of the Province of Udine will be bilingual by the end of this year. This is the aim of the Provincial Administration of Udine [Amministrazione Provinciale di Udine], based on the Law 482/99, entitled ‘Regulations for the protection of historical language minorities’. The province has a budget of 293.475 €, which will make feasible the replacement of more than 1000 road signs along approximately 700 km. The new signs will show the official place names in Italian and also in its original name in Friulan, Slovene or German. The project intends to ensure both the functionality and the equality of the different languages and will be carried out by the Office of the Friulan Language and the Other Minority Languages [Unità Operativa Lingua Friulana e altre Lingue Minoritarie] and the Roading Service [Servizio Viabilità]. In order to ensure the quality of translations, the province has created an ad hoc commission with the aim of defining the place names in Friulan, taking into account the official grammar and orthography; the Slovene and German areas will count on a working group formed by specialists of both languages. According to Marzio Strassoldo, the President of the province, the initiative stands for an important step for the promotion of the use of these minority languages in all domains of the province’s social life.

UN ADOPTS THREE RESOLUTIONS / DECISIONS ON MINORITIES, ONE AFFECTING LINGUISTIC MINORITIES (Minority Rights Group)

May 2004 – The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) adopted by consensus on 20 April, at its 60th session, one resolution and two decisions on minorities. As regards the resolution, it is on the Rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and it refers to the Declaration of the same name, adopted in 1992. With this resolution the Commission on Human Rights urges all States to promote and protect the rights of such persons and to take all the necessary constitutional, legislative, administrative and other measures to promote and give effect to the above-mentioned Declaration, including the provision of equal access to education. It also urges them to pay specific attention to the negative impact of racism and related intolerance on the situation of such persons. Moreover, it calls upon States to give special attention to the promotion and protection of the human rights of children belonging to minorities, taking into account that girls and boys might face different types of risks. And it also welcomes the efforts of the Working Group on Minorities and invites the High Commissioner to continue efforts to improve coordination and cooperation among United Nations agencies and programmes active in the field of minority rights. The text was introduced by the representative of Austria and it was sponsored by 54 states, including 28 European states, among which are 17 EU member states: Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. As regards the two decisions, the first one creates a voluntary fund for minority-related activities; however, it still has to be approved by the General Assembly or the Secretary General and it relies on states making financial contributions to it, and, as yet, none of them have shown great enthusiasm to contribute funds, MRG reports. Finally, as for the second decision, it merely “takes note” of a recommendation to establish an international year for the world’s minorities and encourages UN agencies to cooperate to contribute to the implementation of the Declaration.

EU ENLARGEMENT INTRODUCES NINE NEW OFFICIAL LANGUAGES BUT MANY MORE MINORITISED ONES STILL HAVE NO RECOGNITION

May 2004 – The historical enlargement of the EU to ten new Member States, effective since 1 May, has radically changed the EU’s linguistic regime, while it has also raised many questions as to the future of the much more numerous minoritised languages in both the old and the new EU Member States, which lack ‘official’ or ‘working language’ status. The new EU languages are Czech, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak and Slovenian; in the case of Cyprus, its accession has not entailed any linguistic novelty, as Greek was already official. The reason why all these languages have become official and working languages of the EU is by virtue of their being recognised as an official language “in one or more of the Member States”, according to the regulation determining the languages to be used. However, in practice this criterion has been interpreted in a restrictive way, since up to now only state languages have been admitted (for specific reasons, the Irish and Luxembourgish languages are an exception to this rule), although nowhere is it stated that they have to be official throughout the territory of a Member State. In this sense, as reported by Mercator-Legislation in April, there is some hope that Catalan (official only in a part of the territory of the Spanish State) be given a certain degree of officiality, as a ‘Treaty language’. As regards the minoritised languages in the new Member States, their number may vary depending on the sources, but a possible estimate could be around 34, some of them even in an endangered or extremely endangered situation, while the total number of speakers could near 10 million. Despite the fact that some of these minoritised languages are also state languages in their kin-states and therefore they already enjoy EU official status, most them enjoy no official status at all because they are not state languages in any Member State. Out of these, especially outstanding is the case of Romany, as it is the only language spoken in almost every EU Member State while at the same time it has absolutely no recognition. Moreover, some languages also enjoy the status of a state language in other non-EU states, such as Russian or Ukrainian. For the current situation of the new Member States as regards their linguistic legislation as well as the signature and ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, see Mercator-Legislation’s new web section: “Languages and Legislation”.

POLITICAL WILL TO MAKE GALICIAN, BASQUE AND CATALAN WORKING LANGUAGES OF THE SENATE (Avui)

April 2004 – The new President of Spain’s Senate, Javier Rojo (PSE – Basque Socialist Party), has stated his will to introduce the use of all co-official languages, i.e. Galician, Basque and Catalan, in the upper chamber “in the medium term”. At present, according to Standing Orders of the Senate (Sections 11 bis and 56 bis.7), the senators are only allowed to use such languages on two occasions: on the day of the President’s take-over and in the so-called Debate on the State of the Autonomous Communities, which has only been held twice. Rojo has commissioned a study in order to assess the technical and economic impact of such a change, although he has stated that the introduction of multilingualism in the Senate is a matter of political will. This measure will be launched in the framework of a wider reform of this chamber in order to fully abide by Article 69.1 of the Spanish Constitution, which states that it shall be “the House of territorial representation”.

EBLUL ISSUES RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE IGC ON THE DRAFT TREATY OF THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION

April 2004 – The Board of Directors of the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL) adopted on 18 April a set of recommendations on the Constitutional Treaty for the Intergovernmental Conference, in the expectation that they will be taken into account in spite of the little time there is left. According to the calendar of the IGC, the negotiations on the draft Constitutional Treaty should be concluded no later than the next European Council meeting, to be held on 17-18 June. As stated in a press release, EBLUL gives support to the EU constitutional process and stresses the need to respect, promote and protect Europe’s so-called regional or minority languages in order to maintain and develop the continent’s cultural heritage and tradition. The recommendations are three: to support the Presidency proposal of the Naples Ministerial Conclave of 25 November 2003 on Article I-2 (see Mercator-News: December 2003), to adapt the anti-discrimination Articles III-3 and III-8 of the existing Treaty text by adding the possibility of discrimination based on language, and to maintain the qualified majority voting system (QMV) concerning Culture and Education matters as suggested by the Convention under Articles III-182 and III-183 of the Draft Constitution, as so far the qualified majority vote has only been applicable in the field of education.

CROATIA REPORTS IMPROVEMENT OF ITS LANGUAGE POLICY

April 2004 – Croatia’s second periodical report on the implementation of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, submitted on 13 April, sets forth some major improvements in the field of minority protection, including language-related issues. The report will now be examined by the Advisory Committee and then by the Committee of Ministers. With respect to specific recommendations previously made to Croatia by the CoE’s Committee of Ministers concerning the need for the adoption of a constitutional law on national minorities, the Croatian government states that such legal framework is already in force, whereas other main legislative measures such as the Law on Education in Languages and Scripts of National Minorities and the Law on the Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities, have also been adopted in the last few years. The report also provides relevant official data on the demographic and ethnic structure of the population by nationality and mother tongue, according to the 2001 census results. As regards the European Commission’s position with respect to Croatia, it has just issued its Opinion on Croatia’s Application for EU Membership, recommending that the European Council open membership negotiations with Croatia while also stressing the need for “measures to ensure that the rights of minorities, in particular of the Serb minority, are fully respected”.

UN’S PLAN FOR CYPRUS WOULD ENABLE TURKISH TO BECOME EU OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

April 2004 – “The official languages of the United Cyprus Republic are Greek and Turkish. The use of English for official purposes shall be regulated by law.” Thus would be established by the Constitution of the United Cyprus Republic (Art. 9.1), as proposed by the UN. The constitutional text, along with several other laws and agreements, is included in Kofi Annan’s Plan, entitled “The comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem”, which will be subject to referendum on April 24. If Turkish Cypriots (north) and Greek Cypriots (south) vote ‘yes’, Turkish would then become an EU official language. According to the language regime set by the plan for a unified Cyprus, both Greek and Turkish would be the state languages, so that they would be used for drawing up legislative, executive, administrative and judicial acts and documents of the federal government; citizens would have the right to address the federal authorities in any of the official languages and to be addressed in that same language; and both official languages would be taught mandatorily to all secondary school students. As regards the implications for the EU language regime, the plan includes a “Draft act of adaptation of the terms of accession of the United Cyprus Republic to the European Union”, which provides that Turkish shall be an official and working language of the institutions of the European Union, “upon fulfilment of the necessary personnel and technical requirements”. Moreover, Kofi Annan’s plan also contains a “Federal Law on the Official Languages of the United Cyprus Republic”.

FRESH AIR FOR TURKEY’S ‘OTHER’ LANGUAGES (IWPR – Caucasus Reporting)

April 2004 – After Turkey’s newly-started friendlier political attitude towards linguistic diversity, specially after the government’s adoption in June last year of a package of legal reforms with a view to meet EU accession requirements, as well as, more specifically, the recently adopted legal measures on broadcasting in non-official languages and on the teaching of non-official languages (see previous Mercator-Legislation news), languages other than Turkish are being brought up in the political debate. Although Kurdish is certainly the most widely-spoken and politically visible non-official linguistic group in Turkey, voices have risen in order not to miss the opportunity for other languages spoken in this country, namely Circassian, Abkhaz or Laz, whose presence in Turkey dates back to the forced diaspora after the Russian occupation of the North Caucasus in 1864. Although the historical ban on the use of languages other than Turkish has been officially implemented since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey back in 1923, this has not prevented speakers from teaching their languages in private institutions. Nevertheless, all these languages are facing a rapid decline in their social use and transmission to younger generations, which, according to experts, could lead to their total extinction in no more than 50 years. In this respect, an effective and fruitful implementation of the aforementioned new legal possibilities can only be fulfilled if trained teachers and modern pedagogical materials are available, and as soon as the debate on the script to be used for these languages is settled: either the traditional one –Cyrillic– or the Latin one. Moreover, the existing geographical separateness from the kin language community is also felt to be necessarily taken into account.

NEW SPANISH PRESIDENT WILL ADVOCATE FOR CATALAN TO BE INCLUDED IN THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION (Vilaweb / Avui)

April 2004 – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the newly elected Spanish President, said during the investiture debate, on 15 April, that he will try that Catalan be recognised within the European Constitution, in response to the demand formulated by Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), the Catalan independentist party. In particular, his commitment refers to making Catalan a ‘Treaty language’ by including it in Article IV-10 (‘Languages’), which contains a list of the languages in which the Treaty establishing the Constitution shall be drawn up. Thus, according to Articles II-41 and III-12, citizens could contact the EU institutions in Catalan, the latter then being compelled also to reply in Catalan in that instance, as it already happens with Irish. Such institutions are: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee, as well as the European Ombudsman. However, Rodríguez Zapatero also warned that such a move is very difficult to achieve considering that there is very little time left before the Magna Charta is adopted. If in the end he does not manage to attain this goal, he showed his “commitment of respect and support” to all of Spain’s official languages by stating that he will impel that the Constitution be translated into Catalan, Basque and Galician. Furthermore, among the other demands expressed by ERC was also the need to launch a law on languages, since at present only regional laws regulate the official status of languages other than Spanish.

CZECH REPUBLIC: TWO BILLS TO PROTECT THE CZECH LANGUAGE (ČTK / RFE/RL Newsline)

April 2004 – Two parliamentary initiatives have been launched by the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM): an amendment to a bill on broadcasting aiming to harmonise the Czech media with European Union law, and a bill to amend the Czech Constitution. Both are being debated in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate or upper chamber. As for the first initiative, the said amendment intended to require commercial TV and radio broadcasters, including announcers, advertisers and others, to use correct Czech grammar, but it was rejected by the Senate on 14 April and has now been returned again to the Chamber of Deputies. The main arguments given to oppose such amendment are that the bill does not set any sanctions, making such a provision pointless, and that repeated violations of this amendment could have lead to the broadcast license being revoked. Senators also objected to the amendment with other arguments: they said, for instance, that broadcasters are the ones responsible for “assuring the development of the Czech language and elevating linguistic heritage”, that the provision did not define what is correct grammar, and that such a measure would bring the Senate’s popularity rate even lower than the current 23%. As regards the draft constitutional amendment, also brought in by the KSČM, it was narrowly approved by the Chamber of Deputies in its first reading on 31 March and is expected to face considerable opposition as it makes its way through the parliamentary procedure. According to it, the state would be obliged to “ensure the protection of the Czech language as an inseparable component of state and national identity” but also guarantee that the stipulation does not infringe minority rights.

ASTURIAN STILL NOT ALLOWED IN ELECTIONS (Asturies.com / Andecha Astur)

March 2004 – Asturian language’s lack of official status has led to some obstacles to the electoral process and to a new case of linguistic discrimination. The conflict started when Andecha Astur, one of the parties which ran at Spain’s 14 March 2004 General Elections, submitted its ballots to the Asturian Province Electoral Board but this body decided to ban them because they were in Asturian. While the official ballots were then printed in Spanish, Andecha Astur delivered anyhow ballots in Asturian, which were used by some voters and were in most cases considered null, which has led this party to contest the results. According to Andecha Astur, in case the Electoral Board dismisses this application they will lodge an appeal at the Spanish Constitutional Court. The Electoral Board’s argument was that “as Bable-Asturian does not have the status of an official language different than Castilian, the ballots in the Principality of Asturias may only be written in the official language, Castilian, without any prejudice to Act 1/1998 (…) on the promotion of Bable-Asturian”. However, Andecha Astur has claimed that this decision does infringe Law 1/1998, since this law entitles Asturian citizens to “use Bable / Asturian and express themselves in it, orally and in writing”. Moreover, the Electoral Board’s decision contrasts with a decision issued on 24 February 2000 by the Spanish Constitutional Court (following an appeal lodged by Andecha Astur itself) in which it stated that “the use of a language different than Castilian must not obstruct participation in the electoral process” and that “the unquestionable right to participate in the elections must be respected regardless of the language being used”. Furthermore, as regards the official status of Asturian, the Constitutional Court has recently ruled against the declaration of officiality of Asturian in the municipality of Llengréu made in August 1997, thereby upholding a decision by the Asturian Higher Court of Justice.

CoE ISSUES RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN THE UK (CoE)

March 2004 – A set of recommendations on the application of the Council of Europe’s Charter for Regional or Minority Languages has just been adopted and made public by the Council of Ministers of this international body after having appraised the report submitted by the UK government, subsequent reports by independent experts or NGOs, and the results of the on-the-spot visit made by the Council’s Committee of Experts some months ago. According to these recommendations, the British authorities should set as a matter of priority the need to adopt further specific measures with regard to Scottish Gaelic aimed to favour primary and secondary education in this language, the need to provide relevant information to those responsible for taking actions for its promotion, and the need to create television and radio services in order to overcome shortcomings in this field. The latter recommendation similarly applies to Irish, whereas with regard to Welsh the main advice made by the Council of Europe refers to the need to improve the social use of the language in social care facilities. In relation to Scots and Ulster Scots, a recommendation is made dealing with the necessary creation of general language policy conditions for their promotion, while no reference is made to Cornish. (All these recommendations can be temporarily consulted at www.coe.int/T/E/Com/press/News/2004/20040324_rec_langues_minoritaires.asp).

FRANCE: NUMBER OF BASQUE-SPEAKERS DECREASE (Diario Vasco)

March 2004 – A recent sociolinguistic survey carried out by the Basque government, which includes data on the vitality of the Basque language on both sides of the Spanish-French border, has shown that the percentage of speakers in the Basque-speaking area in France has acutely decreased during the last few years: from 40.2% in 1991 to 36.5% in 2001. In its 3rd edition, the sociolinguistic survey has also pointed out that such decrease is particularly taking place in coastal urban areas, where there is some 15% of Basque-speaking population, rather than in rural ones, where Basque-speakers represent slightly more than 50%. Such tendency seems to be reaffirmed by the figures concerning the major urban centres, i.e. in the cities of Bayonne, Biarritz and Anglet, where the proportion is somewhat similar: 17% of Basque-speakers, three points below the estimates of the 1991 survey. Besides these figures, a very relevant conclusion is the low rate of intergenerational transmission of the language as, according to Erramun Bachoc, President of the Basque Cultural Institute, only half of the young Basque-speakers have learnt it at home and only 25% use it as their first language. Finally, the outcomes of a question on the need to adopt measures for the promotion of Basque in the Basque Country in France have resulted in a 24% of answers in favour, 24% against and 52% of answers showing indifference.

BASQUE GOVERNMENT SAYS IN A REPORT THAT SPANISH STATE FAILS TO COMPLY WITH THE CHARTER

March 2004 – The Basque Government has made public a report entitled “Observations on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) in Spain”, in which it concludes that “there are many commitments taken on by the State that are pending compliance, and whose achievement requires the adoption of measures that have so far not been taken, some of them of an urgent nature.” This report was finished in May 2003 and it was submitted to the Council of Europe in an interview held in Strasbourg on 12 September 2003. Another conclusion it sets forth is that the central authorities and the public institutions of Navarre show a lower level of commitment than the public institutions of the Basque Autonomous Community, as they intend “to limit the presence of Basque in public life and marginalize it in strategic areas such as education or the media, often using the argument of the exclusion that the promotion of Basque supposedly means for people who do not speak it”, an attitude which allegedly infringes Art. 7, par. 2 of the Charter. The report includes a complete assessment of the level of compliance with the obligations arising from the ratification of the Charter and of the facilities and difficulties that Basque speakers encounter in the exercise of their rights in each of the seven areas of public life stated in the Charter, i.e. education, justice, administration, the media, culture, economic and social life and transfrontier exchanges. The text is available in Spanish, Basque, English and French. Moreover, Behatokia (the Observatory of Linguistic Rights in the Basque Country and Navarre, www.behatokia.org) has elaborated a similar report.

NEW UN REPORT ON RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN SWEDEN, THE NETHERLANDS AND SPAIN, AMONG OTHERS (e-noticies / Avui)

March 2004 – The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued in the framework of its 64th session on 12 March its recommendations on several state reports previously submitted, among which are three European Union members states: Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain. Although these recommendations make little reference to language issues or linguistic minority communities, they include some worth mentioning points, such as the Committee’s satisfaction with Swedish information policy concerning the Sami people as well as the need for official estimates of internal demographic composition in terms of ethnicity. In the case of the Netherlands, the CERD welcomes the recent adoption, in February 2004, of the bill implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. With regard to Spain, it should be noted that, unlike a preceding recommendation from 1996, no reference is made to purported language discrimination in the field of education against Spanish-speakers in Catalonia and the Basque Country. This novelty is due to the submission of a report by several Catalan, Valencian and Balearic civil society cultural organisations, which have claimed that the Spanish state systematically denies its language plurality and promotes confrontations among language communities, as for instance in the Valencian Country.

OFFICIAL ROLE OF OCCITAN AT TURIN 2006 WINTER OLYMPICS IS OBJECT OF DEBATE (Vilaweb)

March 2004 – The role of the Occitan language at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games of Turin was discussed in an international event entitled “Occitan, olympic language and culture”, held on March 5 and 6 in Turin and in Bardonecchia. The meeting was organised by Chambra d’Oc, an association promoting the culture and language of the Occitan valleys in Italy, which has claimed for the officiality of Occitan at the Olympics, especially taking into account the precedent of Catalan –which is not a state language– in Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympic Games, although the effort has been up to now in vain. This claim was initiated three years ago, in October 2001 (see Mercator-Legislation’s News: July 2002), when Chambra d’Oc launched a call to local, regional, state and international institutions to request the Turin Winter Olympics Organising Committee (TOROC) to declare Occitan an official language of the games, alongside Italian (as the official language of Italy) and French and English (as the official languages of the International Olympic Committee). The call, which received the support of the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), made reference to the legal basis provided by Law No. 482/1999 (‘Regulations on the matter of historical language minorities’). Next year, on 18 May 2002, TOROC was invited to participate in an international meeting to discuss the official role of Occitan at the games. TOROC answered that the officiality of Occitan was not viable, a position which it still maintains, although it has expressed its willingness to allow the presence of Occitan language and culture at the games, as requested by an EBLUL resolution. In this regard, several Occitan experts attended the meeting of March 5-6 in order to prepare a lexicon of sport terms. They worked in collaboration with the Catalan Terminology Centre (TERMCAT), which also participated in the meeting and contributed with its expertise: this centre developed 28 dictionaries for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, one for each sport, and it also collaborated with the organising committees of the Atlanta and Sydney Olympic Games. In particular, TERMCAT provided its Dictionary of Snow as a reference for the Occitan lexicon. The meeting also served to present the minutes of the meeting held on May 2002 (entitled “The official role of the Occitan language at the XX Winter Olympic Games – Turin 2006”).

MERCATOR'S II INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: NEW ELEMENTS OF ANALYSIS IN THE FIELD OF MINORITISED LANGUAGES IN THE EU

March 2004 – The II Mercator International Symposium, held in Tarragona (Catalonia) on 27-28 February, gathered a wide variety of speakers who gave a series of very interesting high-quality speeches. They will be soon published online at Mercator-Legislation’s website. The title of the symposium was “Europe 2004: A new framework for ALL languages?” and its main objective consisted in providing a critical assessment of the role assigned to the so-called minority or regional languages within the new European order, which will be deeply transformed on account of the imminent adoption of the new European Constitution and the enlargement of the European Union. In this respect, speakers contributed with in-depth analyses of the existing legal instruments and language policies, while they also provided constructive arguments as to which aspects need to be improved. Among the speakers were representatives from governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as highly-recognised university linguistic law experts, such as, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (University of Roskilde, Denmark), who gave the opening plenary, Alessandro Pizzorusso (University of Pisa, Italy), Bojan Brezigar (President of EBLUL), Regina Jensdottir (Secretariat of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Council of Europe), Teresa Condeço (DG of Education and Culture, European Commission), Niamh Nic Shuibne (University of Edimburgh, Scotland), Miriam Aziz (European University Institute, Florence, Italy), Snezana Trifunovska (University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Kristin Henrard (University of Groningen, the Netherlands), Robert Dunbar (University of Glasgow, Scotland), Eduardo J. Ruíz Vieytez (University of Deusto, Basque Country), Gabriel Von Toggenburg (European Academy of Bolzano, South Tyrol), and many others. Furthermore, during the symposium the ceremony of the 2003 Linguapax Awards was held; the linguists awarded were Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Aina Moll (member of the Philological Section of the Institute of Catalan Studies).

Related links...
More information on the symposium (photos, programme, etc.)
Linguapax
Eurolang.net

AMENDMENTS TO LATVIAN EDUCATION LAW PROVOKE PROTESTS (Minelres / RFE/RL Newsline)

February 2004 – A political storm is taking place in Latvia due to some amendments to the Education Law concerning state-supported secondary education in minority languages. The amendments were adopted on January 22 by the Saeima (Parliament) and modified the regulations established in May 2003. It was then stipulated that up to 40% of the curricula could be taught in minority languages, meaning that not less than 60% was to be taught in Latvian; moreover, not less than 5 subjects in minority schools were to be taught in Latvian. However, the new wording has introduced a restriction: subjects taught in minority languages may only be minority language subjects or subjects “related to minority identity and culture”, which would mean that only 10-15% of the curricula could be taught in minority languages. These amendments mostly affect the Russian-speaking minority, as it accounts for 30% of the population and has the highest number of minority schools. The Russian community perceives them as an attack to their goal to preserve secondary education mainly in the mother tongue and has carried out mass protest actions, including student strikes. OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rolf Ekeus has told Latvian Education and Research Minister that constructive dialogue is needed. On the other hand, the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee approved a report on the new EU-member states (including Latvia), in which it recognises that Latvia’s citizenship, language and education policies are in line with international standards, but calls Latvian authorities to ensure 60:40 bilingual education during school age. This report will be voted by the European Parliament on 10 March.

FRANCE “SAVES UP” AT THE EXPENSE OF ITS MINORITY LANGUAGES (Vilaweb)

February 2004 – The French government has drastically reduced to virtually a third the number of teaching posts for its so-called “langues régionales” in order “to save up”. While the number of posts offered in 2003 was 32, only 12 will be offered for the 2004 period. By languages, Occitan is the most affected one, as it loses nine posts (4 instead of 13), while Basque and Catalan language teaching posts have been reduced from 3 to 1, Breton ones from 5 to 2, and Creole ones from 8 to 4. In response to such an enormous reduction, the chairpersons of the university juries of the examinations (CAPES) for Basque, Breton, Catalan and Occitan teaching posts have issued a public statement strongly criticising the government’s measure. They argue that the number of posts suppressed is vital for these languages, as the resources they have available are very scarce, while the saving represents “a drop of water within the mass of examinations” (0.45% out of the total last year and 0.27% after the cutback). Moreover, they complain that this decrease has been announced only one month before the tests take place. In the statement they also regret that they have been naïve in thinking that in the last years the French government had shown signs of a change of attitude towards languages other than French and that some sort of recognition could be soon granted. They refer to the creation of CAPES, the signature of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the organisation of the conference “Assises des Langues de France” on 4 October 2003 (see News – October), despite some other issues, like the new Article 2 of the French Constitution, the prohibitions on bilingual teaching and the non-ratification of the Charter. They also claim that a linguistic “eradication policy” is being carried out.

TURKEY: NEW LEGAL MEASURES ON BROADCASTING IN AND TEACHING OF NON-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

February 2004 – Two legal measures have been recently adopted in Turkey concerning its numerous minority languages, the so-called “languages and dialects used in daily lives of Turkish citizens”: a bylaw on broadcasting in non-official languages, enacted on 25 January 2004, and a regulation on the teaching of non-official languages, adopted on 5 December 2003. As regards the bylaw on broadcasting, it applies to the public station (TRT) as well as to the private ones and, despite allowing a certain use of such languages, it declares that the language of broadcasts shall be essentially Turkish and that the broadcasting only in non-official languages shall not be permitted. Among the provisions are the following: radio and television broadcasts in non-official languages shall include translations into Turkish (radio) and subtitles (television), the programmes in such languages shall be the news or programmes on music and traditional culture, but the teaching of non-official languages shall be prohibited, and the broadcasting in such languages in televisions may only be up to 45 minutes per day and 4 hours per week, while radio broadcasts shall be restricted to 60 minutes per day and 5 hours per week. Moreover, the bylaw stipulates in a provisional article that until a profile of the audience is made, broadcasts in non-official languages shall be done only by statewide televisions and radios. And as regards the regulation on the teaching of non-official languages, unlike the previous regulation of September 2002 the new one does not require the approval of parents of students below 18 years of age allowing their attendance in such courses. However, these students will only be allowed to receive teaching of non-official languages as long as they do not fail to attend school, where they learn Turkish.

GREECE: COURT DECISION SAYS MACEDONIAN IS A NON-EXISTENT LANGUAGE (Greek Helsinki Monitor)

February 2004 – The Macedonian cultural association Home of Macedonian Civilization (“Stegi Makedonikou Politismou”), based in Florina, Greece, which lodged an application asking for recognition and entry on the public register of associations, has been denied its right to freedom of association, as the Court of First Instance of Florina ruled against it (on 19 December last year) alledging that its purpose poses a “danger to public order” and “provides an opportunity (...) to create a historically non-existent “Macedonian nation””. In fact, this is not a new case: Greece was already condemned in 1998 by the European Court of Human Rights for having failed to recognise the same association and, consequently, promised that Greek courts would “not allow for the repetition of similar judicial errors”, a step which was positively acknowledged in 2000 by the Committe of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The decision includes some fragments which deny the existence of the Macedonian language: “the purpose of the association (…) is – inter alia – the preservation and dissemination of Macedonian culture and the preservation and cultivation of the Macedonian language – MACEDONCKI. (…) More specifically, the word ‘Macedonian’ – defining the culture to be preserved – implies that this culture is something particular and self-contained, so that it is not clear whether the word is being used in its historical sense to refer to an integral part of Greek civilisation with its local specificities, or in its geographical sense, in which case it is left undefined which part of the broader region of Macedonia is meant (…). This lack of clarity is (…) in fact exacerbated by the association of this culture with a non-existent language, claimed to be ‘Macedonian’, despite the fact that in the geographical area of Macedonia it is the Greek language which is spoken, except by a small portion of the population, which also speaks –in addition to Greek– an idiom which is essentially Slavic.” (For more information, see http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/bhr/english/special_issues/home_of_macedonian_civilization.html).

NEW INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE FOR LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ITALIAN IN FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA (Lenghe.net)

February 2004 – The government of Friuli-Venezia Giulia has recently changed its official administrative structure regarding the promotion of those languages other than Italian spoken in the autonomous region. From now on it is the “Regional Directorate for Linguistic Identity and Migrants, Instruction, Culture, Sports and Peace and Solidarity Policies” which will be in charge of dealing with the German, Slovene and Friulan linguistic groups. This new service will be a de-centralized one and will be coordinated from different places: whereas the office working for the German and Friulan minorities will be located in the province of Udine, that of the Slovene-speaking community will be based in Trieste. On the other hand, a new public petition calling for a further institutional support towards the languages in FVG has been recently presented to its Regional Council, specifically aiming at an increase of the public presence of the abovementioned languages in the areas where they are spoken.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT WILL HOST CONFERENCE DEALING WITH LINGUISTIC TRANSFRONTIER COOPERATION (Entitats.info)

February 2004 – In the framework of the programme “Transfrontier nations in an enlarged Europe”, the European Parliament has organised a conference to take place on 3 March, on the prospects of transfrontier cooperation in relation to possible actions concerning, among others, linguistic issues. The president of the Catalan-language network of schools in France “La Bressola” has been invited to speak about the possibilities of reinforcing community programmes such as “Interreg” in the relation between Catalan-speaking educational centres on both sides of the border. The claim for the official status of the Catalan language in European institutions will also be focused during the session. On the other hand, representatives of the German-speaking South Tyrol region in Italy will also be present and participate in the afternoon session.

FRISIAN LANGUAGE BILL WELCOMED BY SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN‘S PARLIAMENT

January 2004 – A bill entitled “Act for the promotion of Frisian in the public domain” was submitted for its first reading on 22 January in Schleswig-Holstein’s Land Parliament (Germany) and it was overwhelmingly well-received by its members, with some nuances: while there was a total consensus as to recognise that the Frisian cultural patrimony is to be protected and promoted, members also agreed on stressing that this legal measure should promote the language on a voluntary basis in order to avoid high costs. However, the Land’s Minister-President was sceptical about it and pointed out that the undertakings of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages should suffice. The bill, the first legal text ever written in Frisian in the history of Germany, applies to the areas where North Frisian is spoken, by approximately 10,000 speakers, namely in the district of Nordfriesland and on the island of Helgoland, and it gives official status to Frisian by granting certain linguistic rights in official use. In particular, it gives Frisian-speakers the right to speak and write in Frisian to the local authorities without having to pay for any additional costs, it allows the authorities to issue bilingual official application forms, and it establishes that the command of Frisian shall be taken into account in the assignment of public service positions. Moreover, it stipulates that signs posted in official buildings, as well as seals and letterheads, shall become bilingual, while it allows that signposts may also become bilingual. According to the bill’s author, Lars Harms, a member of SSW (the party that represents the Danish and the Frisian minorities in the Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein), the bill is based on the laws for the Sorbian language from Saxony and Brandenburg, and there will be proposals for the use of Frisian at school and in the media in the future, as Eurolang reports. As for the Nordfriisk Institut, it considers the bill to be a “historic breakthrough”.

NEW MULTILINGUAL PORTAL OF THE SPANISH OFFICIAL GAZETTE LAUNCHED (Europa Press)

January 2004 – The Spanish Official Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado, BOE) has recently launched a new internet portal called “Iberlex”, which allows free access to its historical database (from 1968 until present) as well as to recent Spanish main legislation in Catalan, Galician and Valencian (sic). The portal also contains links to all Autonomous Communities’ official gazettes, including those of Galicia, Basque Country, Navarre, Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia, published in their respective languages. Moreover, the portal includes the text of the Spanish Constitution in different languages, including English, French, Italian and German, and of European Union treaties. It also contains links to official gazettes of some EU member states.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY

January 2004 – The European Parliament adopted on 14 January with a wide majority an own-initiative entitled “Report on preserving and promoting cultural diversity: the role of the European regions and international organisations such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe”, which asks the Parliament to stress the importance of cultural diversity as a core value of the European integration project. Although the resolution claims that such diversity should be more strongly promoted through regional, national and international means, most of the text is devoted to the international sphere. It sets as a long-term objective for European and non-European actors the need to agree on an international legal instrument. In this sense, it welcomes the recent UNESCO decision in its General Conference (17 October 2003) to launch a process leading to the adoption of an International Convention on Cultural Diversity in the next session of the General Conference in 2005, based on two founding texts: the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the Council of Europe’s Declaration on Cultural Diversity. By contrast to a mere Declaration, a Convention would be legally binding. Furthermore, such a Convention is presented as a counterweight to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its free-trade policy. As regards language diversity, the resolution calls for the promotion of multilingualism and the support of education in the mother tongue, and it reaffirms its vigilance concerning the treatment of minority languages, including indigenous ones, in the context of an enlarged Europe.

THE NEW AFGHAN CONSTITUTION PROTECTS SEVERAL LANGUAGES

January 2004 – After three weeks of harsh negotiations, the 502 delegates of Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga (grand council) finally reached an agreement on 4 January on the text of the new Constitution. The country’s fragile ethnic relations made it very difficult to find a consensus on several issues, among which the status of languages. Pashto and Dari, the two most widely-spread languages, spoken by the two main ethnic groups –Pashtuns (the largest one) and Tajiks–, will enjoy an equal status as official languages, as in all previous Afghan constitutions, although the national anthem will be sung in Pashto. This should work out as a solution to a century-long language dispute between these two groups. From a political point of view, Pashto is nowadays mainly spoken by the Taliban, in the south and east, while Dari is spoken in the north-east (including the capital Kabul) by Tajiks, who are the main components of the Northern Alliance, the multi-ethnic non-Pashtun faction who opposed the Taliban. Dari may actually be considered as one of the three varieties that make up the Persian language, along with Farsi (or standard Persian) in Iran and Tajik in Tajikistan, being the national and official language in both countries. As for Pashto, it is also spoken in north-western Pakistan. Both belong to the Iranian sub-group. But further to these two languages, the new constitution will also recognise the languages of minority ethnic groups as third official languages in the areas where these communities are the majority. Among these the most important are Uzbeks, the second ethnic group within the Northern Alliance, who complicated the negotiations in the Loya Jirga when they demanded that Uzbeki (a Turkic language) be also granted official status like Pashto and Dari. Other minority languages are Hazara (Persic), Turkmani (also Turkic), Baluchi (Iranian subgroup), Pashaei, Aimak, Brahui, or Nuristani.

SOCIAL UNREST ABOUT THE BALEARIC GOVERNMENT’S LANGUAGE POLICY (Avui / Diari de Balears)

January 2004 – The language policy implemented by the Balearic government (Popular Party, PP) since the last municipal and autonomic (regional) elections in May 2003 are causing unrest among many different social and political agents. An important cultural organisation, Obra Cultural Balear, summoned a demonstration on Friday 10 with the support of a varied range of other organisations, such as trade unions (CCOO, UGT, STEI-i –teachers–, Unió de Pagesos –farmers–, and USO), schools (Moviment d’Escoles Mallorquines), youth organisations (Consell de Joventut de les Illes Balears, Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua), ecologists (Els Verds de Mallorca), etc. The object of the demonstration was to demand the Balearic government to “rectify” its language policy, as they argue it systematically unfulfils its duty to promote and protect the Catalan language as established by the Spanish Constitution, the Balearic Statute of Autonomy and the Language Normalisation Law. This view is also shared by the University of the Balearic Islands, which denounced in a press release that both the Spanish and the Balearic government present “the language normalisation process as a negative factor and not as an integrating and positive one”. The demonstrators claimed the Balearic government to overturn the drastic cutback in the budget for Language Normalisation and Culture, to reverse the slowdown in the implementation of the so-called “minimum hours” school decree of 1997 (which sets the necessary measures to implement the total bilingualism model, by stipulating the subjects that must be taught in Catalan in primary and compulsory secondary education), to repeal the new decree reducing Catalan language requirements for Administration staff (see Mercator News: July 2003), to reopen Som Ràdio, and to redefine the project of the new bilingual autonomic TV and radio station by following the Catalan-monolingual model used in Catalonia.

NEW EBLUL MEMBER STATE COMMITTEE ESTABLISHED IN POLAND

January 2004 – The European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages established a new MSC (Member State Committee) in Poland on 13 December 2003, in a meeting held in Gdańsk. The Polish name of the organization is “Unia Języków Regionalnych i Mniejszościowych w Polsce” (PolBLUL) and it shall concentrate on the protection and the promotion of the following regional and minority languages: Armenian, Belorussian, Czech, German, Hebrew, Karaim, Kashubian, Lithuanian, Romani, Russian, Ruthenian/Lemkian, Silesian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Wilamowicean, and Yiddish. As the President of the Committee, Dr. Tomasz Wicherkiewicz, has informed, during the first period of activity, the PolBLUL would like to focus on establishing contacts with other EBLUL MSCs, lobbying for soon ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by the Republic of Poland as well as for adoption of the Law on National and Ethnic Minorities, and acquiring and disseminating knowledge on European instruments and sources for the protection and promotion of regional and minority languages in EU member states.

FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES: RESOLUTIONS ON SWITZERLAND, SWEDEN AND LITHUANIA

December 2003 – The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted on 10 December three resolutions on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Switzerland, Sweden and Lithuania. Their conclusions may be consulted in the links provided below. Of all three, Lithuania is the one that needs the most improvements. It is also the only one that still has not signed nor ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. As for the national minorities of these three states, they are the following: according to the declaration contained in the instrument of ratification of Sweden, “the national minorities in Sweden are Sami, Swedish Finns, Tornedalers, Roma and Jews”; and the languages covered are Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli (Tornedal Finnish), Romani Chib and Yiddish; Switzerland declared in its first state report that it has four national languages: French, German, Italian and Romanche, while it also recognises the minority of “travellers of Swiss nationality”; and finally, Lithuania, although not explicitly citing its minorities, these are Russians, Poles, Belarussians, Ukrainians, Jews, Latvians, Tartars, Roma, and others.

Related links...
Resolutions of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on the implementation of the Framework Convention:
by Switzerland (in English and French)
by Sweden (in English and French)
by Lithuania (in English and French)

SEVERAL MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE STATUS OF IRISH LAUNCHED

December 2003 – An Action Plan for the implementation of the Official Languages Act, a Broadcasting (Funding) Bill and two campaigns calling for official status of Irish in Europe have been launched. All of them aiming to improve the status of Irish Gaelic. The Action Plan, which was presented by the Minister for the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, on December 17, is the first piece of legislation that lays down a legislative planning process to ensure that services are provided in Irish, on the basis of certain rights and duties. It sets an agenda for the gradual implementation of the different sections of the act throughout the first and second quarters of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005 (see Mercator-Legislation News: July 2003). As for the Broadcasting (Funding) Bill 2003, its aim is to provide that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland prepare a scheme or schemes for the funding of grants to support certain television and radio programmes, involving programmes in the Irish language and programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, including the Irish language. And as regards the two campaigns, one has been initiated by the newly formed organisation Stádas, with the objective of influencing the Irish Government about the need to make Irish an official EU language. The idea is to send a letter to members of the Oireachtas (the Irish lower chamber), to local representatives or to MEPs, outlining the implications of Irish not having EU official status. Finally, an online petition has been launched demanding "that the Irish language be declared an official working language of the European Union”. So far, more than 50,000 signatures have been collected (www.petitiononline.com/gaedhilg/petition.html).

SLOVAKIA AND ARMENIA: LAST TWO STATE REPORTS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CHARTER

December 2003 – The Slovak Republic’s Initial Periodical Report on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, published on 5 December, has been the last report up to now within the framework of this instrument’s monitoring mechanism. The Republic of Armenia also published its Initial Periodical Report on 3 September. As for Slovakia’s report (only in English), it has a length of 132 pages and includes information on the country’s demographic parametres and on the policy and legislative measures taken by the government. It provides a useful list with all the relevant state legislation concerning the regulation of language issues. As regards Armenia’s report (in English and French), it is quite shorter (52 pages) and not so schematic, although it provides a useful summary on the country’s history, political organisation, demography and main relevant legislation. As declared in Slovakia’s instrument of ratification, its regional or minority languages are Hungarian, Romany, Czech, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, German, Polish, Bulgarian and Croatian, while the Republic of Armenia declared in its instrument of ratification that “there are no regional or non-territorial languages”, but only minority languages, which are Assyrian, Yezidi, Greek, Russian and Kurdish.

RECOGNITION OF MINORITY COLLECTIVE RIGHTS IN EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN TURNED DOWN (Eurolang / Vilaweb / Avui)

December 2003 – Hungary’s initial proposal on including a reference to the collective rights of ethnic and national minorities in Article 2 of the European Constitution (devoted to the Union’s values) has been rejected. Instead only individual rights of people belonging to “minority groups” will be recognised. The stopping of a wider recognition has been due to the opposition of several states, especially Spain and the Baltic countries. The Spanish Foreign Minister, Ana Palacio, stated that Spain could not accept the amendment “because of the delicate situation of the Basque conflict”. The Hungarian proposal, which intended to grant minorities the right to set up schools and media in their own language –in view of the populous Hungarian minorities living abroad, especially in Romania and Slovakia–, was supported by Italy, Austria and Finland, but it had to be lowered in order to satisfy demands from countries like Romania and Belgium. Italy provided then a revision by adding a reference to “minority groups”. Thus, Article 2 will read: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minority groups.” So far national minorities have been mentioned only in the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Part II of the Constitution) by prohibiting “any discrimination based on any ground such as […] membership of a national minority” (Art. II-22). As regards language rights, the only references are contained in articles I-3 and II-22 (see Mercator-Legislation News File: June 2003).

OSCE ADOPTS ACTION PLAN FOR ROMA AND SINTI INCLUDING CERTAIN LANGUAGE RIGHTS

December 2003 – The Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) adopted on 2 December in Maastricht an Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area. The plan sets forth recommendations to States, OSCE institutions and other relevant bodies to eradicate discrimination against the Roma and Sinti, by elaborating and implementing national legislation and policies addressing the situation of this minority in many different fields. As regards language issues, the plan recommends participating States to facilitate their access to justice “through measures such as the provision of information in the Romani language” (item 18), to “actively promote equal opportunities in the field of education for Roma and Sinti children, particularly by providing them with language-related or other assistance” (item 69), and to “consider measures to ensure the respect, protection and promotion of the Romani language and its teaching, and of Roma culture as an integral part of the Roma and Sinti cultural heritage” (item 72). Moreover, the plan states that the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) “will continue to provide guidance on educational models, curriculum content and the teaching of, or in, the mother tongue, including the Romani language” (item 86).

SPAIN’S MINISTRY OF EDUCATION CHALLENGES THE UNITY OF THE CATALAN LANGUAGE (Vilaweb / Avui)

December 2003 – The Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports decided on 27 November to put forth a Royal Decree, which will further develop the so-called Education Quality Act, known as LOCE (see Mercator News: April and October 2003), and which will separate the teaching of Valencian and Catalan as two different languages in all Official Language Schools (a network of public language schools). The Spanish Education Minister, Pilar del Castillo (PP, Popular Party), has argued that Valencian is recognised as a language by the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Country, but at the same time has stated that it would make no sense to teach Valencian in Catalonia, while the leader of PP in Catalonia is sure “of the unity of Catalan”. While the text is still subject to revision, del Castillo has refused to provide the official version of the text and neither has she given any details regarding its implementation agenda, although it will most likely be adopted within the next months. As with all previous LOCE’s development decrees, the Catalan Education Department will lodge an appeal to the Constitutional Court, while a great amount of protests have arisen from various Valencian, Balearic and Catalan philological authorities: the IIFV (an organisation gathering all Catalan language departments in Valencian universities) has demanded an institutional agreement that resolves the issue of different language names for the same language, in order to avoid language secessionist policies, while the Catalan language academy (IEC) considers the decree is based on political criteria rather than scientific, cultural or historical ones. Likewise, the head of the Philology Department of the University of the Balearic Islands as described the decree as an “aberration”. Moreover, a recent study has shown that most websites of the Government of the Valencian Autonomous Community do not comply with a ”Decalogue on the use of Valencian” in the Administration adopted in October by the Valencian Government.

UNESCO ADOPTS A CONVENTION AND A RECOMMENDATION AFFECTING LANGUAGE ISSUES

November 2003 – The 32nd session of UNESCO’s General Conference, held in September and October, has resulted in several measures, among which only two are related with language issues: a convention and a recommendation (items 8.4 and 8.5 of the session, respectively). As for the convention, one of the five standard-setting instruments adopted by the session, it is entitled International Convention on the Preservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. It was adopted by an overwhelming majority and requires the ratification by a minimum of 30 State Parties to enter into force. A complement to the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which concerns monuments and natural sites, this new Convention addresses oral traditions and expressions, including, among other items, languages as vehicles of cultural heritage. As UNESCO reports, it is the result of a long process of awareness raising since the 1982 Mexico City Conference, where UNESCO’s Member States first evoked the concept of intangibility to refer to the body of humanity’s expressions of spirituality. Given the recent adoption of this Convention, the text will be subject to linguistic adjustment in English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese. On the other hand, the recommendation is concerned with the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace; it affects the development of multilingual content and systems, “so as to ensure that all cultures can express themselves and have access to cyberspace in all languages, including indigenous ones”.

MALTESE LANGUAGE BILL PRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT (Malta Media)

November 2003 – A bill entitled the “Maltese Language Act, 2003” was published in the Government Gazette of Malta on November 18 (Gazette no. 17, 504), whose purpose is “to establish the National Council for the Maltese Language in order to promote the National Language of Malta and to provide the necessary means to achieve this aim”. It is currently being discussed in Parliament. The text sets out several fundamental principles, which, although not being enforceable in any court of law, are to be applied by the state. Such principles are, among others, that Maltese is a fundamental element of national identity of the Maltese people and that the state is bound to protect it from “deterioration and perdition”, by promoting it in the areas of education, broadcasting and the media, at the law courts, and in political, administrative, economic, social and cultural life. Most of the bill is devoted to describe the creation and functioning of the National Council of the Maltese Language, which has the aim to adopt and promote a suitable language policy and to verify its performance and observance in every sector of Maltese life. The Council shall also be responsible for regular updates of the orthography and correct use of Maltese. According to the Maltese Minister of Education, this act will have a particular significance in the light of Maltese being soon recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union, although, as the Times of Malta reported last August, the lack of Maltese translators may put the use of Maltese as a fully EU-official language at risk. As regards the status of languages in Malta, the Constitution establishes that Maltese is the national language, while the official languages are both Maltese and English.

EU-ACCESSION REGULAR REPORTS ON BULGARIA, ROMANIA AND TURKEY RELEASED

November 2003 – The European Commission released on 5 November three Regular Reports on the progress of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey towards EU-accession for 2003, as negotiations are ongoing with Bulgaria and Romania with a view to their membership in 2007 and a strengthened pre-accession strategy for Turkey is being implemented. All three reports include issues regarding minority rights, on account of the fact that the protection of minorities is one of the political criteria to be fulfilled, while only the reports on Romania and Turkey explicitly refer to language rights and language legislation. As regards the report on Romania, it states that “legislation extending the official use of minority languages was implemented relatively smoothly” and it makes reference to the recent constitutional reform, to the law providing for bilingual signs, to the legal language requirements for police officers and to the use of minority languages in education (see Mercator-Legislation’s News – June and September 2003). As for the report on Turkey, it includes the most references to linguistic rights: it mentions the four constitutional reform packages concerning, among others, fundamental freedoms and cultural rights, and it gives emphasis to the field of broadcasting, underlining that the reforms permitting radio and TV broadcasts in languages other than Turkish have had little practical effect. The report also discusses other legislative measures regarding linguistic rights, such as the Law on Associations, the Civil Registry Law, the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and several regulations on the use of languages other than Turkish in the areas of film, the arts, cultural events or education (for more information, see Mercator-Legislation’s News –September 2002, April 2003 and June 2003– and Bulletin no. 53).

DRAFT GAELIC LANGUAGE BILL ON A SCOTLAND-WIDE BASIS PUBLISHED

November 2003 – The Scottish Executive delivered on 10 November its proposals for a Gaelic Language Bill, stating that it is the clearly expressed wish of the Gaelic community, and opened a consultation period running until 9 January 2004. Following this, the Scottish Ministers will consider what changes should be made before it is introduced to the Scottish Parliament in the summer of 2004. By contrast to the bill presented by Member of the Scottish Parliament Mike Russell in November 2002 (see Mercator-Legislation’s “News” section – Nov. 2002 and Sept. & Oct. 2000), this one will apply to the whole of Scotland. In the words of First Minister Jack McConnell, this draft bill is meant to fulfil the commitment by Scottish Ministers “to secure the status of Gaelic in Scotland” and it will “for the first time provide legal status for the language”. This would thus represent a milestone in the recent history of the language although there is nevertheless a strong opposition by Celtic activists to some significant shortcomings. While the draft bill provides for the establishment of a body to be known as Bòrd na Gàidhlig (Gaelic Language Board), whose main function will be to promote the use and understanding of Gaelic and prepare a national Gaelic language plan, and it also places a duty on public bodies to consider the need for Gaelic language plans in relation to the services they offer, activists claim that it is largely symbolic and will not have much practical effect. They highlight the lack of any principle of equality of Gaelic with English as found in the Welsh Language Act and criticise that it does not mention linguistic rights, it does not legislate Gaelic-medium education and it does not cover the use of Gaelic in the legal system. Moreover, it is said to be weaker than Mike Russell’s Bill in that it does not give the Gaelic Language Board the power to require public bodies and local councils to make language plans.

THE BASQUE LANGUAGE IN THE NEW DRAFT STATUTE FOR THE BASQUE COUNTRY

November 2003 – The official presentation on October 25 of the new proposal by the Basque government for a new political statute (known as “Ibarretxe Plan”) has raised a political storm all over the state, especially in several political institutions and in the two major Spanish parties (PP and PSOE). The proposal states that the Basque people “is a people with its own identity among all European peoples” and it opens the door for a future consultation to the citizens of its historic territories –i.e., the Autonomous Communities of Euskadi and Navarre and the territories of Iparralde (in France)– in order to “set up a new relation model with the Spanish state based on a free association and being compatible with the possibilities to develop a composed, multinational and asymmetric state”. Moreover, in comparison to the Statute of Autonomy currently in force (Organic Act no. 3/1949), it widens the references to the Basque language. Specifically, Article 8, which regulates the status and the use of the Basque language, does not mention the Spanish government’s power to make transfrontier cultural agreements with other Basque-speaking territories, and instead it gives that power to the Basque Community. On the other hand, it states that the Basque Community in charge of the “constitutional development of fundamental rights and duties regarding the legal status of the use of languages, the rights of speech and communication, the right to education and the freedom of teaching (Art. 47), and it also refers to the possibility that the Community has direct representation within international bodies dealing with cultural and linguistic issues (Art. 67).

SUPPORT TO THE USE OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN THE MEDIA (Patronat Català Pro Europa / MRG International)

November 2003 – Two significant international initiatives aiming to strengthen the presence of the so-called regional or minority languages have been recently made public. On the one hand, the Committee of the Regions has just published (OJEU no. C-256/79 from 24.10.2003) an opinion on the application of Directive 89/552/CEE “Television Without Frontiers”, having regard to the report from the European Commission on such application. This opinion by the Committee of the Regions urges the Member states to take account of such languages and calls that they have a greater presence, especially in local and regional television services, as well as in EU’s programmes and initiatives for this field. On the other hand, the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) High Commissioner for National Minorities has also published some guidelines on the use of minority languages in the OSCE member states. This document underlines the importance of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, from the Council of Europe, and recalls that several states, including EU-member states, have not yet signed either one.

BILINGUAL LABELLING OF PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS IN SOUTH TYROL REGION (Vilaweb/Alto Adige)

October 2003 – The labelling of pharmaceutical products in the province of Bolzano/Bozen, in the Autonomous Region of South Tyrol (in German, Südtirol), will be available in Italian-German bilingual version from December this year, as set up by the presidential decree no. 574 of 1988, on the use of German and Ladin in dealings of citizens with the public administration and in court proceedings. Later on, in 1997, Italy’s Ministry of Health issued a circular as a reminder, while in 2001 a presidential decree (no. 283/2001) was published, which, in addition to consolidating the obligation of bilingual labelling, hardens sanctions. The measure, which will be progressively implemented, envisages that chemists provide customers with German-language brochures on the products they sell; the text of such brochures is to be the latest version endorsed by the Miinistry of Health. The introduction of this measure will be made also with the support of the main pharmaceutical industries in the region.

MOTION SUBMITTED TO THE SWEDISH PARLIAMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE FINNISH LANGUAGE (Nordic Council)

October 2003 – Two members of the Social Democrat group within the Swedish Parliament, who are also members of the Nordic Council, have recently submitted a motion to the Swedish national legislative chamber claiming that the official support towards the Finnish language should be strengthened, as, according to the text, the situation of Finnish speakers in Sweden has worsened during the last years. The proposal is based on the Swedish state’s explicit recognition of linguistic and cultural diversity by means of the ratification of the European Framework for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM) and of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), as well as on the need to adopt specific measures for the promotion of Finnish as an indigenous language of Sweden. The motion reminds that relations between both countries are now closer than ever, besides considering that the respective presence of minorities on either side of the border is an added value from a linguistic, cultural and economic perspective. One should also take into account that both the FCPNM and the ECRML are enforced in Sweden and Finland, and that both states show mutual official acknowledgement of their respective minority communities.

FRENCH GOVERNMENT SHOWS TIMID SIGNS OF INTEREST IN LANGUAGE DIVERSITY (Vieiros/Le Monde)

October 2003 – The National Meetings of the Languages of France, which are organised by the General Directorate of the French Language and the Languages of France (Ministry of Culture) and which took place in Paris on 4 October, have been a timid step towards some recognition of linguistic and cultural diversity within the French state, one of the most reluctant in the EU to take part in this debate. The event, summoned with the aim to appraise the current state of affairs of languages in France, started with an explicit recognition of language and cultural diversity, which is quite a relevant fact given the several political decisions against the acknowledgement of multilingual reality, such as the amendment of Article 2 of the French Constitution in 1992, the refusal of the National Council to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and the recent dismissal concerning the incorporation of bilingual schools within the French educational system. The meetings also included the launching of a new website devoted to the languages of France, which includes migrants’ languages and those of overseas colonies. Moreover, the Ministry made public the figures showing the number of French students who have learned one of the autochthonous languages in France, despite the traditional non-interventionist policies followed by the successive French governments.

APPEALS LODGED AGAINST THE LAST DECREE ON THE USE OF BASQUE IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF NAVARRE (Behatokia)

October 2003 – The adoption of the Regional (Foral) Decree 29/2003, of February 10th, on the use of the Basque language in the Public Administrations of Navarre has raised critical voices against the Navarrese government’s attitude towards Basque, considering that it contradicts and does not fulfil the undertaking to protect and promote the Basque language as established by the Regional (Foral) Act 18/1986, and neither does it respect the principles set forth by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, ratified by in Spain. A number of social organizations (among which are Behatokia –the Observatory of Linguistic Rights–, Kontseilua, Euskara Kultur Elkargoa, several trade unions –CGT, EILAS, LAB, ELA, etc.– and local bodies) have already lodged some appeals against the Autonomous Community government’s decree before the Higher Court of Justice of Navarre. Moreover, at the international level, it is worth mentioning a Resolution adopted in September in this respect by the EBLUL (the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages), which will be included in the Mercator-Legislation’s Bulletin no. 55 together with the Decree 29/2003.

SEVERAL COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE SPANISH STATE FOR DISCRIMINATING THE CATALAN LANGUAGE (Avui & Vilaweb)

October 2003 – The Spanish state is hindering the normalisation process of the Catalan language in many fields, according to several institutions. One of these fields is education: the Catalan government has just lodged an appeal to the Constitutional Court against a decree issued by the Spanish Ministry of Education, which doubles the amount of hours dedicated to the subject of Spanish language and literature at primary schools (see Mercator-Legislation’s news in April). The Catalan government argues that this measure is a clear obstacle for the Catalan language immersion programme at school and that it is unconstitutional, because it overlaps with the powers devolved to the Catalan Autonomous Community. The decree has also been contested by several opposition parties and several trade unions. Another field in which Catalan is being discriminated is the judiciary: the most important bar associations in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands have delivered a report to the Council of Europe denouncing that the Spanish state does not comply with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The main shortcomings are that judges, attorneys and civil servants are not required to know the language, thereby treating Catalan as a foreign language and restricting the right to use Catalan in court, and that there are no official Catalan translations of Spanish state, EU and international legislation adopted or ratified before 1998 (thus unfulfilling Art. 9.3 of the Charter). Moreover, the Catalan newspaper “Avui” has had access to a report which will also be submitted to the Council of Europe by the Observatory of the Catalan Language (see Mercator-Legislation’s news in May). This report states that the Spanish state continuously fails to fulfil the Charter in various fields, such as education, the judiciary, public services, economy, social affairs, the media and culture.

THE AMAZIGH LANGUAGE TO BE TAUGHT WITHIN MOROCCO’S SCHOOL SYSTEM (AP)

October 2003 – The agreement signed last September between the Moroccan Ministry of National Education and Youth and IRCAM (“Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe”) will allow the introduction of the Amazigh language within the state’s school system during the 2003-04 school year. Despite the fact that the decision will only affect some 300 schools, a progressive introduction is expected to take place throughout the next 10 years. Although Arabic is the state’s only official language it is estimated that some 50-60% of the Moroccan total population speaks Amazigh. However, the agreement has not been welcomed as expected by some sectors of the Amazigh movement and of the IRCAM itself, who consider the measure to be only aimed at controlling and weakening the Amazigh identity and language, besides stating that the allocated resources are rather limited. One of the most controversial issues is the lack of qualified teaching staff to undertake and guarantee a quality language teaching. In this respect, there is now a political debate on the need for an agreement on the use of one single writing for Amazigh and for the creation of a literary standard. Moreover, another relevant issue is the considerable amount of Amazigh speakers within the EU, especially in France and Spain, particularly in the Autonomous City of Melilla, where it is one of the autochthonous languages.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS IN ROMANIA WILL WIDEN LANGUAGE RIGHTS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES (RFE/RL Newsline)

September 2003 – Green light for the package of 79 constitutional reforms in Romania, which was approved separately by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on 18 September and is to be submitted to approval in a referendum on 19 October. This way, as stated by Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, the current constitution of 1991, which is one of “transition”, will be tailored to “pre-accession” to the EU in 2007. One of the amendments grants national minorities the right to use their mother tongue in the courts of justice, if this does not obstruct the proceedings. However, according to Antena 1 (a private TV channel), this means that national minorities will not be able to do so in counties where the ethnic majority is Romanian. This amendment was included thanks to the compromise reached by an all-party parliamentary commission, including the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), its parliamentary ally, the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), and the amendment’s opponents, the nationalist Greater Romania Party (PRM). In fact, the PRM voted against it in both chambers and appealed to the Constitutional Court, arguing that it is unconstitutional and that it will “diminish the unitary national character of the state and its official language”. On the other hand, the Romanian government is working on a draft legislation to support the cultural and linguistic identity of the Romanian minorities living abroad (a few million living in Greece, France, Serbia, Ukraine, the U.S., Germany or Japan, among others), based on the model of Hungary’s Status Law. Moreover, the official results of Romania’s census have been recently published: 91% said Romanian was their first language and 6.7% said it was Hungarian. See also Mercator-Legislation News (June 2003).

LINGUALIA, A NEW MULTILINGUAL PORTAL FOR THE PROMOTION OF MINORITISED LANGUAGES

September 2003 – A new portal for the so-called European minority or, rather, minoritised languages is available on the Internet since 26 September, the European Day of Languages. It is called lingualia.net and it was presented at CIEMEN (Barcelona). It has been created within the framework of the MININF project, which is supported by the European Commission, the EBLUL and the Mercator network. The project’s main objective is to give more visibility to lesser-used languages and, to accomplish this, the portal is already accessible in 15 languages: English, French, Breton, Basque, Russian, Occitan, Irish, Chuvash, Sardinian, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Romany, Catalan and Danish. The contents of Lingualia are organised similarly as Yahoo!, that is, as a directory of links to websites and documents which are either related with or published in minoritised languages. It also contains an section called “Encyclopedia”, which intends to collect information from research centres and universities and invites such centres to give major dissemination to their publications related with minoritised languages. In the future the portal will include a news service, an agenda of activities, or tools to facilitate the creation of electronic documents which will be available for the public in general. Moreover, translations into many other languages are also expected. The project counts on a network of correspondents and voluntaries from the different European language communities to translate or furnish the website with new contents in and on their respective languages. Should you be interested in collaborating in the portal development, please contact us.

Related links...
Lingualia
EBLUL
Mercator centres

FIRST CATALAN-LANGUAGE SECONDARY SCHOOL IN FRANCE (Indymedia/Eurolang)

September 2003 – After 27 years of active work for the promotion of the Catalan language at school in Northern Catalonia (French part of Catalonia), La Bressola school network has recently opened its first Catalan-medium secondary school. The great demand and support from the students’ parents has encouraged La Bressola to enable students to continue their primary education through the Catalan immersion system, and accordingly the 6th grade began on 2 September with 18 students. La Bressola intends to start with small-size classes and progressively enlarge the attendance, although many students are already in a waiting list and the demand is expected to raise in the next years. As for the teaching staff, it is composed of four teachers, who have been working hard for the last months in order to be prepared. The school is located in El Soler, due to its central position (only a few kilometres away from the primary schools of La Bressola: in Perpinyà, Prada, Nyils and Sant Esteve) and also because of the great interest this town has shown in Catalan education. However, notwithstanding this positive trend, La Bressola schools are suffering economic hardship, due to the lack of institutional financial support on the part of the General Council of the Department of Pyrénées Orientales. As it stands, La Bressola network relies on parental financial support, but also receives substantial aid from the government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Spain), as well as from a great amount of town councils, both from the French and the Spanish parts of Catalonia, although in a restricted way, considering their limited competences. It seems, then, that the tremendous social support received by the schools (they have 400 students and, according to the official surveys, 40% of the families living in the French part of Catalonia want their children to learn Catalan) is not appealing enough for the French authorities, as they allocate less than 1% of the schools’ budget.

CoE’S COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS: 2nd RECOMMENDATION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CHARTER IN NORWAY

September 2003 – The monitoring process regarding the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Norway has already reached its second period, as it was one of the first states to adopt this international instrument. Accordingly, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has just issued a second set of recommendations once having considered the Committee of Experts’ report, after its “on-the-spot” visit to Norway some months ago, as well as the opinion of representatives of legal bodies working in this field. The few recommendations mainly relate to the need to further promote the Sami varieties spoken in the country and to resolve the situation of the Kven/Finnish language.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PASSES EBNER RESOLUTION AS SPECIAL STATUS FOR LANGUAGES SUCH AS CATALAN IS REJECTED (Avui/Eurolang)

September, 2003- Last September 3rd the European Parliament voted in plenary session in favour of the resolution proposed by MEP Ebner on Linguistic Diversity and Regional and Minority Languages (see preceding Mercator news), which had previously been consulted with agents of the so-called civil society. Despite the scepticism with which the resolution was welcomed among different members of the EP Popular Party, the resolution was finally passed with 421 votes in favour, 27 against and 21 abstentions. Apart from opening a possibility for a further recognition and support to this group of languages, the decision also starts the process leading to the creation of an European Agency for Linguistic Diversity and Language Learning, on which the European Commission is yet to fully agree. On the other hand, an amendment proposed by practically the majority of Catalan MEP (except for one member of the Popular Party) dealing with the possibility to provide speakers of official languages in a territory and which are used by the majority of the population (as the case of the 7 million Catalan-speakers) with the possibility to have access to the main EU documents in their own languages, was voted separately on request of the European Popular Party and finally rejected with 260 votes in favour and 190 against. Nevertheless, the European Parliament digital online newsletter “Focus on Europe” has made available a Catalan language version besides those in the 11 EU official languages.

Related links...
Resolució Ebner in English (provisional)
Focus on Europe

EDUCATION REFORM IN LATVIA COMES INTO FORCE AS IT KEEPS RAISING CONCERN (MINELRES-Minority Issues in Latvia)

September, 2003- The new education reform in Latvia has already come into force on September 1st while it keeps raising concern mainly among the Russian-speaking population in this Baltic Republic. Despite the last amendment (August 12th) introduced to the original law establishing that all state-supported secondary education would have only been from September 1st, 2004, in the state language, in accordance with the new standards of the state secondary education (May, 2003), protests are still present in parts of the Latvian society: the specific provisions included in the last amendment establish that after the “transition period” (2004-06) a minimum of 5 subjects in minority secondary schools shall be taught in Latvian, as well as it stipulates that up to 40% of the curricula, to be determined by each school, could be taught in minority languages. Besides the nature of the political decisions criticism is also aimed at the attitude of the Latvian government which, according to some pro-minority activists, has ignored their opinion in the political debate as no minority is represented in such government.

FINLAND RATIFIES NEW LANGUAGE ACT

August 2003 – The President of the Republic of Finland proposed last June to ratify the new Language Act, thus replacing the old Act of 1922. This has been just a final procedural step, as the Finnish Parliament already voted the Act on 11 February and then submitted it to the President of the Republic for confirmation, although the President does not have the right of veto. The legislative procedure is now complete and the new Act will enter into force on 1 January 2004. Like the old act of 1922, it only concerns the constitutionally determined national languages, Finnish and Swedish, and provisions on the use of the Saami language will be included in a separate Act (pursuant to Section 8) undergoing revision, which is also intended to come into force on 1 January 2004. The right to use other languages is contained in the Act by making reference to the current legislation on court proceedings, administrative proceedings, administrative judicial procedure, education, health care, social welfare, and other administrative sectors. As for the Saami’s linguistic rights, they are currently regulated by Act no. 516/1991 on the use of the Saami language before the authorities, under which they may use their language before authorities, orally and in writing, and receive a reply in the same language, although in practice the exercise of these rights is based on translation and interpretation, creating crucial obstacles to dealing with authorities. This Act has been amended on several occasions, under Acts no. 975/1995, 1726/1995, 888/1996, and 190/2000; they are all available in Finnish and Swedish at www.finlex.net (see link below), while the Saami version is only available for the 1991 Act and the two amendments introduced in 1995 (at www.finlex.net/lains/saami/19910516.pdf, .../19950975.pdf, and .../19951726.pdf, respectively). For further information on the process of adoption of the new Language Act, see Mercator-Legislation’s News File (March and November 2000, August 2001, December 2002 and February 2003).

UNITED STATES: SEVERAL INITIATIVES TO MAKE ENGLISH THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

August 2003 – Two bills aiming to make English the official language of the United States, among other English Only initiatives, are currently pending in the 108th Congress (2003-04). Both bills were introduced in the House of Representatives last February and are known as “National Language Act” (HR 931) and “English Language Unity Act” (HR 997). As for the first one, it includes the termination of bilingual education programmes. If this legislation were enacted –although this is not much likely, as such measures are now thought to rather alienate more potential (Republican) voters than attract them–, it would amend the U.S. Code in such ways as the following: English would be the only language that federal employees and officials would be permitted to use for most government business, the English Only mandate would extend to any form of written communication on behalf of the U.S. government, every person would be entitled the right to communicate with the federal government in English (which would be a language right, but for English speakers only), naturalisation ceremonies would be specifically restricted to English, and bilingual provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which guarantee minority-language voting materials in certain jurisdictions, would be repealed. Meanwhile, opponents have proposed a legislative alternative known as English Plus, which defends multilingualism and opposes English Only restrictionist legislation, putting forward the fact that there is no threat to the status of English in the U.S., as according to the 2000 Census 96% of U.S. residents speak it “well” or “very well”. English Only legislation first appeared in 1981 as a constitutional English Language Amendment, but this measure did not succeed; since then, a total of 23 states have adopted active Official English laws. In 1996 a bill to make English the “Language of Government” failed to become a law and in 2002 the Bush Administration repealed the Bilingual Education Act.

LEGAL USE OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN SLOVAKIA MIGHT BE BROADENED (RFE/RL Newsline)

August 2003 – A draft law aiming to amend the 1999 Slovak Law on the Use of Minority Languages has been submitted by the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK) to the Slovak cabinet. By contrast to the current Law, which only deals with the use of minority languages in official contacts with local self-governments and allows the use of such languages in municipalities where minorities make up at least 20% of the population (Art. 2.1), the draft law stipulates that the minority population threshold should be lowered to 10%. However, the SMK has encountered opposition from its government coalition partners, who consider the current legislation to be sufficient. On the other hand, the SMK has long advocated the creation of a Hungarian-language university and its demands have now been finally realised: the Slovak cabinet has just approved the creation of such university in Komárno, southern Slovakia, where 80-90% of the population are ethnic Hungarians, according to the 1991 census. The new university is to begin its activities in September 2004.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION: NEW ACTION PLAN ON LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

August 2003 – The European Commission has shortly made public a new Action Plan on linguistic diversity and language learning within the European Union, in response to the requests made by the European Parliament and the European Union’s Education Council after the European Year of Languages 2001. The plan put forward by the Commission is endorsed by the fact that this body asked the opinion of the concerning parties (organisations and bodies actively working in this field) on a previous document on the possible future actions to be carried out in the area of language learning, which was then discussed in April in Brussels. The adoption of the new plan has been communicated to the Parliament, the European Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of Regions, and a new call for proposals of projects that fit into the plan has been attached. As regards the promotion of the so-called minority or regional languages, the Action Plan and the call for proposals are aimed at putting them on the same level as the group of official or state languages, according to the principle of equality between all European languages; moreover, they underline the need to provide specific measures for such languages within the framework of the EU-programmes that are directly related with them, especially in the field of education. If you wish to have access to the mentioned documents, please click on the links we provide you below.

Related links...
European Commission Action Plan
Call for proposals
Eurolang news

UNESCO GENERAL CONFERENCE: LIKELY PRESENCE OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY AND RIGHTS

August 2003 – The next UNESCO General Conference, which will be held from 29 September to 17 October 2003, might include an item in its agenda asking the institution to restart its work on linguistic diversity and rights. This is a very encouraging step for the aspirations of the Follow-up Committee of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (FCUDLR). From the beginning of the activity of the FCUDLR (which was launched, among others, by CIEMEN-Mercator Legislation) one of its main objectives is that UNESCO writes and adopts its own document on linguistic diversity and rights, based on the declaration written and approved in 1996 in Barcelona by several organisations and PEN Centres from all over the world. In order to achieve this, many negotiations have been made, either with UNESCO’s Secretariat or with its member states, although it is not an easy process. At present, and especially since UNESCO’s Language Division was cancelled, the Follow-up Committee of the UDLR is working for the re-adoption of the language issue, so that it is included in UNESCO’s agenda. During the last year, the Committee has carried out several steps in order to receive the support of a number of states who are in favour of proposing an item in the agenda of the General Conference asking UNESCO to restart its work on languages, based on a document called “The responsibility of UNESCO in the area of languages”. This initiative proposes that this organisation commits itself in becoming the main agent for the conservation of linguistic heritage, for the creation of mechanisms that enable the protection of all languages, and for the establishment of language coexistence models between the most widely-used languages and the rest of languages. Mexico is to lead the initiative and, up to now, it is supported by South Africa and Germany, while some other states are still to confirm their support, namely: Bolivia, Uruguay, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the Wallonia-Brussels general delegation.

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT IMPROVES ITS GAELIC SERVICES (www.scottish.parliament.uk)

August 2003 – The Scottish Parliament expanded and improved its Gaelic services last June by appointing the new Gaelic Information Officer, a post which will provide an enquiry and information service to Gaelic speakers contacting the Parliament. With this new appointment the Scottish Parliament now employs two Gaelic Officers, both located within the Participation Services team: the said Gaelic Information Officer and the Gaelic Outreach Officer, which was created in November last year. Both posts, taken by Sarah Gundry and Alasdair MacCaluim respectively, will be coordinated in order to offer a full parliamentary service. The tasks to be carried out by Ms. Gundry are the following: developing, organising and delivering a visits programme to the Parliament through the medium of Gaelic; providing an information and enquiry service for Gaelic speakers and learners; managing and quality-assuring Gaelic translation within the Parliament; providing MSPs and parliamentary staff with advice on the use of Gaelic; preparing parliamentary information and guidance materials, including materials for the Parliament’s Gaelic webpages at www.scottish.parliament.uk/gaidhlig; and working with the Head of Participation Services and the Gaelic Outreach Officer to develop a policy and model for the Parliament's services to Gaelic speakers. As for the other post, the Gaelic Outreach Officer, its duties are to build links between the Parliament and Gaelic speakers, through working closely with Scotland's Gaelic community, Gaelic education and Gaelic media. Moreover, the Scottish Parliament has recently released the Gaelic version of its 2002-03 annual report; copies are available from the Parliament’s Gaelic service or from the Scottish Parliament website.

Related links...
Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill
Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill – Policy memorandum
Mercator-Legislation Working Paper no. 10

BALEARIC ISLANDS: NEW DECREE TO REDUCE CATALAN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMINISTRATION STAFF (Diari de Balears)

July 2003 – Once the PP (Partido Popular) has gained the presidency of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands after four years in the opposition, one of the first measures taken by PP’s government has been a proposal of a decree under which only an elementary and basic command of the Catalan language (A and B levels) will be required in order to work in several areas of the public administration. The new decree, which is to be passed in September, will repeal the provisions of another decree passed by the previous government establishing the need to have a C level in Catalan (certificate of middle oral and written command), a level which will only be taken into consideration as a merit as soon as this new measure enters into force. Moreover, officials older than 50 years will not be subject to any requirement on the command of the Catalan language. Although this government’s proposal includes the promotion of courses for officials in order that they acquire such minimum command, several trade unions have criticised this measure arguing that it introduces once again discriminatory elements towards one of the official languages. The general secretary of PP in the Balearic Islands has told the press that one of the aims of the new decree is that “nobody fails to work in the Administration due to the level of Catalan”. Furthermore, it is worthwhile remembering that the previous government, composed of progressive and nationalist political forces, passed a new act a few months ago on the legal regime of the public administration, under which any person who deals with the administration has the right to be attended without being discriminated based on language.

EBNER REPORT ON EU MINORITY LANGUAGES MOVES AHEAD, ALTHOUGH CUT OUT

July 2003 – European Parliament’s Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport voted on July 8 overwhelmingly in favour of the draft report for a legislative initiative prepared by South Tirolean MEP Michl Ebner (EPP-ED – SV, Italy). The report sets forth recommendations on ways in which the European Commission could help preserve the so-called regional and lesser-used languages –the languages of minorities in the EU– in the context of enlargement and cultural diversity. It includes a motion for a European Parliament (EP) resolution in which it calls on the Commission to submit legislative proposals to the Parliament by December 31, 2003: mainly the establishment of a European Agency for Linguistic Diversity and Language Learning and the provision of a multiannual programme with concrete financial measures to be implemented by this language body. The agency should be in charge of keeping constant track of developments in its area, implementing an Action Plan on Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity –which is to be published this summer by the Commission–, promoting a multilingual Europe and a language friendly environment, and developing a network to promote linguistic diversity, including European regional and minority languages as well. Nonetheless, the compromise reached by the Parliament’s Culture Commission –with just two abstentions and no votes against, although the voting procedure was chaotic, as Eurolang reported– did not hinder the loss of a third recommendation aiming to expand the remit of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUNC) by also taking into account discrimination on the grounds of language and the protection of minorities. As for the agenda of this legislative initiative, it will be put to the EP plenary session in September; if successful the European Commission will take about a year to look at the recommendations and proposals.

Related links...
Michl Ebner’s draft report, 24/06/03
EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament – Press release

APPEAL LODGED WITH THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AGAINST THE FRENCH STATE (Celtic League/Conseil Culturel de Bretagne)

July 2003 – The initiative was started by several Breton organisations –Conseil Culturel de Bretagne, Diwan (the Breton immersive school network), UGB (Breton teachers union), Diwan parents, Dihun (the catholic bilingual school system), plus the Occitan language schools Calandretas, and others–, who claim the right to use regional languages in education. They argue that the French State refuses to recognise linguistic and cultural diversity within the framework of the Constitution of the French Republic and fails to ratify those international conventions which guarantee such rights, mainly the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In particular, the action appeals against a decision by the French Council of State, issued on November 29, 2002, on a bilingual immersion education system, making immersive teaching of regional languages illegal, which allegedly restraints the freedom of expression and the right to education without discrimination based on language. The organisations set out that the French State violates the right of students to use regional languages at school so that they can learn French and their regional language on an equal basis, and denies the development of the youth through their own culture, as well as the access to true bilingualism, which leads to multilingualism and overture towards cultural diversity. The appeal relies on some legal instruments (UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union), and it also cites a speech given on February 2, 2003, by the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, in which he asserted “the rights and duties of the states, namely the respect for linguistic pluralism and the mobilisation to stop the disappearence of languages in the world”.

ARAGONESE LANGUAGE LAW AGAIN IN THE POLITICAL AGENDA (www.mallorcaweb.net/catalarago)

July 2003 – As occurred four years ago, in the investiture speech of the President of the Autonomous Community of Aragon, Marcelino Iglesias, reference has been made again to the need to provide this community with a language law in order to promote the official use of the Aragonese and Catalan languages in their respective speaking-areas. During the last term of office, the Aragonese Government –a coalition between PSOE (the Spanish socialist party) and Partido Aragonés Regionalista (PAR)– submitted a bill, but the parliamentary process for its final adoption did not even start due to the lack of concensus among the political parties that made up the Aragonese parliament (see Mercator-Legislation’s News File – July 2001). This time, however, given that the government pact between the same two parties (PSOE and PAR) has been renewed and that most parties with representation in the Aragonese parliament are in favour of the bill, it seems that the adoption process may speed up now, specially considering the implementation of the commitments made through the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by the Government of Spain; this document clearly differentiates between the languages with an official status –Catalan, Basque and Galician–, as recognised by their respective Statutes of Autonomy, and those which, although without an official status, are protected or safeguarded by the Statutes of Autonomy of Aragon, Asturies and Catalonia: respectively, Aragonese, Asturian and Aranese. Moreover, the Aragonese Government started to implement on July 7 the new territorial organisation of the community by “comarques” (shires or counties), which breaks up the historical unity of the Catalan-speaking Franja de Ponent and adds Spanish-speaking villages to it.

IRELAND ADOPTS OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT (Gaelport.com)

July 2003 – Ireland’s Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (Senate) have accepted the text of the Official Languages Bill 2002; once it is signed by the President of Ireland –Mary McAleese–, it will be known as “Official Languages Act 2003”. The object of this Act is to promote the respect for Irish and English as the State’s official languages and to promote equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use, by placing several duties on the organs of State and public bodies, as well as to introduce a monitoring mechanism and to make legal the Irish version of placenames. In particular, it provides, among others, for the use of the official languages in each house of the Oireachtas (the National Parliament), in the publication of Acts, in the administration of justice, in communication with public bodies, and on stationery, signage and advertisements. Moreover, it provides for the preparation by public bodies of statutory schemes detailing the services that they will provide in the Irish language, prior to a public consultative process, ensuring that an adequate number of staff are competent in the Irish language and also that any particular linguistic requirements associated with the provision of services in the Gaeltacht (the Irish-speaking areas) are met. Finally, as for the monitoring mechanism, each year the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs shall submit a report to each house of the Oireachtas on the operation of the Act in the preceding year, and the Office of the Official Languages Commissioner shall be established, also known as “Oifig Choimisinéir na dTeangacha Oifigiúla”, to monitor compliance by public bodies with the provisions of the Act and to carry out advisory and assistance tasks both to public bodies and to the public. (For further information, see Mercator-Legislation’s news file – Dec.-00, Aug.-01 and Apr.-02).

Related links...
Summary of the bill
Text of the bill
Map of the Gaeltacht

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS FOR PROMOTION OF ASTURIAN LANGUAGE UNDER CRITICISM (exunta.org)

July 2003 – Shortly after the new government of the Autonomous Community of Asturies made public its political proposals for the promotion of the Asturian language for the next four years, the Xunta pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana (Board of Defense of the Asturian Language) has issued a press realease saying that the plan is disappointing and negative. According to this press release, the new government –a coalition of PSOE (the Spanish socialist party) with Izquierda Unida-Bloque por Asturies (United Left-Block for Asturies)– has only undertaken to “implement, in some cases in a restricted way”, the Law on the Use and Promotion of the Asturian Language, in force since 1998, while it does not comply with one of the aims set out in the platform of Izquierda Xunida-Bloque por Asturies, namely giving official status to Asturian. According to Xunta pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana, the platform of these two parties included the development of a demanding language normalisation plan, the use of Asturian by public officials and a wider use in education, the creation of a language policy office and the modification of the current legal framework, but once a coalition agreement has been reached, these commitments seem to have vanished.

TURKEY IMPROVES MINORITY LANGUAGE RIGHTS WITH A VIEW TO EU-ACCESSION (Turkish Daily News)

June 2003 – The Turkish Parliament adopted on June 19 the 6th harmonisation package, including, among others, articles which allow the broadcasting in non-official languages by private radio and television stations, as well as the registration of names in non-official languages. It also reduces bans on media organisations during election periods and eases censorship on audiovisual products, such as songs and movies. This step is aimed at removing restrictions, with a view to comply with the political criteria for EU-membership, which include the "respect for and protection of minorities”. The Turkish Government has also announced another set of reforms’ package to be voted very soon, before the Parliament’s summer recess, considering that time is running out, as EU leaders are to meet in December 2004 to decide on the start of accession talks with Turkey. The Government intends to finish legislative reforms by the end of the year and concentrate on their implementation throughout 2004. In a draft statement obtained by the press, EU leaders (who met in a summit in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 19-21 June), praised Turkey for its reform efforts so far, but called on the Government to do more. Likewise, the European Parliament adopted a resolution at the beginning of June, in which it welcomed Turkey’s progress towards membership but said clearly that the conditions for the opening of accession negotiations were not yet in place. It urged Turkey to respect minority languages and religions, and in particular to build a more relaxed and constructive relationship with its citizens of Kurdish origin; it also called for effective access for all citizens, irrespective of their origin, to radio and television broadcasting and education in Kurdish and other non-Turkish languages. (For further information, see Mercator-Legislation’s news file – April).

SPANISH ADMINISTRATION TO INCLUDE CATALAN, BASQUE AND GALICIAN IN ITS WEBSITES (e-noticies / El Periódico)

June 2003 – The Spanish Senate approved on June 10 a motion as a consequence of a question claiming that the State General Administration’s websites provide all its contents also in Catalan, Basque and Galician, besides Spanish. Up to now, the State General Administration’s websites only include the mentioned languages, plus the so-called “Valencian”, in their general index, but not in the contents. Moreover, curiously enough, there is absolutely no difference between the supposedly distinct Valencian version and the Catalan one, which would contradict the choice of using two different designations for the same language. This motion, which was submitted by CiU (Convergència i Unió) and received the unanimous support of all parties that make up the upper chamber, also urges the Spanish Government to include a search engine that be compatible with Spain’s other co-official languages, and to publish the contents of the digital version of the BOE (Boletín Oficial del Estado, the Spanish State’s official gazette) also in these three languages. The motion’s file number is 671/000109 and it was published in the Senate’s official gazette (Boletín Oficial del Senado, Serie I, nº 672).

Related links...
Boletín Oficial del Senado, Sèrie I, núm. 672
Administración General del Estado

UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT FINALLY RATIFIES EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES (RFE/RL & Public Radio)

June 2003 – The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) ratified on May 15 the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, despite the promise Ukraine made in 1995 to ratify it within 12 months after having joined the Council of Europe that same year. Thus, the ratification of the Charter takes place seven years after having signed it, on May 2, 1996. In fact, the Ukrainian Parliament had ratified it in December 1999, but the Constitutional Court ruled its provisions unconstitutional, as it considered that state officials were to use only Ukrainian. The reasons for the delay in the ratification, among others, are apparently the fear of Ukrainian speakers that the Charter would primarily promote Russian (the major minority language in Ukraine) or that the linguistic rights of Ukrainophones living in eastern Ukraine and Crimea would be ignored. As a matter of fact, a group of prominent lawmakers have appealed to the President of Ukraine, Kutchma, to veto the ratification of the Charter, because, in their opinion, it is aimed against the Ukrainian language and protects languages that do not need any protection, namely Russian, Hungarian and Bulgarian. The Charter will apply to the languages of the following national minorities: Russians, Belarussians, Bulgarians, Crimean Tatars, Gagauz, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians, Jews, Moldovans, Poles, Romanians, and Slovaks.

NATIONAL MINORITIES IN ROMANIA WILL BE ALLOWED TO SPEAK THEIR MOTHER TONGUE BEFORE THE COURT (Minelres)

June 2003 – Romania’s Chamber of Deputies voted on May 22 to re-introduce in the draft amendments of the Penal Code a provision allowing members of national minorities to freely speak their mother tongue in judicial proceedings. This provision had actually been removed from the proposed amendments by the Judicial Committee, but pressure from the party representing the Hungarian minority (UDMR) –which is in coalition with the ruling party (PSD)– made possible the restoration of the previous proposal. However, the compromise was compensated by a counter-measure, according to which official documents on the judicial proceedings are to be issued only in Romanian.

Related links...
RESEARCH CENTRE ON INTERETHNIC RELATIONS – CCRIT
DIVERS-Reporting Ethnic Diversity news

REVISED TEXTS OF PARTS I, II, III AND IV OF EUROPEAN DRAFT CONSTITUTION ARE READY

June 2003 – The European Convention has published the draft texts of Volume I (Part I) and Volume II (Parts Two, Three and Four) of the Treaty establishing the Constitution, as revised by the Praesidium in the light of the comments and amendments received and the discussions in plenary session. The final text will be subject to final approval in the European Commission’s session to be held in Berlin on the second half-year of 2004. As regards minority languages, Part One incorporates a particular suggestion to add the notion of “linguistic diversity” to that of cultural diversity, and, for the sake of balance, the notion of a common cultural heritage has also been added (already in the current Treaty); thus, paragraph 3 of Article I-3 (“The Union’s objectives”) now states: “The Union shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced”. Moreover, Part Two, which is constituted by the Charter of Fundamental Rights, includes an article (Art. II-22), which states that “The Union shall respect cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.“ These texts (CONV 724/03, of May 26, and Convention 725/03, of May 27) can be consulted in all official languages of the European Union.