EDITORIAL

The European construction process has been reinforced within a short time by two great events, which are already fully consolidated and which should inevitably make us reflect on the type of Europe we want. These two milestones are, obviously, the Draft Constitution and the enlargement of the EU to ten more states: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia; two deep changes that lead to a redefinition of the grounds which are to give stability and continuity to the new Union. In regard to the Constitution, it seems that it will include a brief reference to the commitment of respecting the Union’s rich cultural and linguistic diversity. It remains to be seen to what extent this diversity will also include the numerous non-official languages of the states in the EU. And as for the enlargement, it must be born in mind that one of the conditions that need to be accomplished in order to start the negotiation talks for EU-membership is the compliance of the political criteria, among which is the respect for and the protection of minorities.

This is why we have decided to include, in the legislation section, two recent novelties of two different cases: on the one hand, a law within a member state –Spain– and, on the other, a law of a state like Croatia, which is still is far from attaining full membership but is making efforts so that the EU starts the accession talks. In the case of the Spanish State, is a law passed by the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands, on the legal system of the administration, which regulates, among others, the use of the Catalan language in the administrative practice and procedures. As regards the case of Croatia, we issue the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities, adopted in December 2002, which created the ground for the political participation of minorities in the Croatian Parliament and in local and regional self-government units, by means of the establishment of minority councils aiming at preserving, protecting, and improving the status of minorities within society. In the international framework section we have included a 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 by Germany, in which special reference is made to the need to promote the languages spoken by the Frisian and Sorbian minorities.

Finally, as regards the dossier, we have focused on the case of a state like Morocco, in order not to restrict ourselves to the near European context and broaden our views towards the international scenario. The object of study is focused on the Amazigh people and on the fact that in the last years a new movement of defence of the rights of the Amazigh people has vigorously arisen and, up to now, it has been rewarded by a timid move by the Moroccan monarchy towards the recognition of the “plural character of the identity” of the Moroccan people, by means of the adoption of the Charte Nationale d’Éducation et de Formation (National Charter of Education and Training) in October 1999 –with a section devoted to the open approach towards the Amazigh language– and the establishment of the IRCAM (Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe, Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture) in October 2001.