EDITORIAL

Although legislative production is constant in all fields, it is nonetheless not common that in a relatively short period of time two EU member states –Ireland and Finland– enact and renew their main language laws, which can be considered as a step forward. We are therefore pleased to publish in the present issue of the Mercator-Legislation Bulletin one of these texts: the Republic of Ireland’s Official Languages Act 2003 (whereas the new Finnish language law will be published in our next Bulletin). It is one of the most relevant novelties in the field of European language policies, aiming at granting an effective equal status to Irish Gaelic –otherwise known as Irish, the state’s national and first official language– and English. Taking the 1993 Welsh Language Act as a model, Ireland’s new Official Languages Act 2003 sets up a series of duties and obligations for public bodies, in the shape of three-yearly schemes, in order that such bodies progressively provide their services to users in Irish, in equal conditions with English. Besides, this new act establishes a set of rules aimed at increasing the normalisation of the use of the Irish language in the field of public administration and the courts throughout the whole territory of the republic.

On the other hand, in this issue we also focus on the Basque language –or Euskara– in one of the territorial administrations within Spain where it is spoken, the Autonomous Community of Navarre. Its government has recently issued a decree which restricts the use of Euskara in public administration in certain areas of this autonomous community, mainly in its capital, Iruña (Pamplona). In this regard, we also reproduce the resolution adopted by the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL), which is critical with such political decision, as it considers that it undermines the undertaking to protect and promote the Basque language as set up by the Regional (Foral) Act No. 18/1986, and it also contradicts the fundamental principles of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, currently in force in Spain.

Last, our Dossier no. 15, included in this issue, deals with what could be regarded as Germany’s second language, i. e., Low German. Despite the inclusion of Low German in the ratification instrument of the Charter and the fact that some Länder have included references to this language in their constitutions in the last decade –and therefore proving the growing recognition of their historical, cultural and linguistic heritage–, the situation of the language is far from being stable. We hope it will raise your interest.