MERCATOR :: Butlleti 55: Regional (Foral) Decree no. 29/2003, of February 10, on the use of the Basque language in the Public Administrations of Navarre

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[Non-official translation]

[Source: Boletín Oficial de Navarra, no. 19, 12/02/2003]

REGIONAL (FORAL)[1] DECREE NO. 29/2003, of February 10, on the use of the Basque language in the Public Administrations of Navarre

The Foral Act no. 18/1986, of December 15, on the Basque language, establishes in Articles 2.1 and 6 that all citizens have the right to know and use Castillian and Basque in the strict terms set out in the act, and it recognises in Article 2.2 that Castillian is the official language of the whole of Navarre and establishes that Basque has the status of a co-official language, along with Castillian, in the Basque-speaking area of Navarre, according to the terms established in Article 9 of the Organic Act on Reintegration and Improvement of the Foral Regime of Navarre and in Articles of the above-mentioned Foral Act on the Basque Language.

The said Foral Act on the Basque Language establishes in Article 5 and related articles three language areas in Navarre, and the present Foral Decree applies to such areas. A Basque-speaking area in which Basque is a co-official language, along with Castillian, a mixed area, and a third non-Basque-speaking area in which Basque is not an official language. In all of them citizens are granted the right to use Basque in their dealings with the Public Administrations, as stated in the same Foral Act and these administrations are urged to undertake several measures in each area in order to enforce this right, in different ways and degrees.

As for the regulations in force regarding the Common Administrative Procedure, it recognises the right of citizens, in their dealings with the Public Administrations, to use the official languages within the territory of their Autonomous Communities in which they have an official language status and it establishes that the procedures in which the bodies of the State General Administration with their seat in an Autonomous Community take part shall be conducted in the official language chosen by the interested party, according to his or her linguistic rights. Moreover, the Organic Law on the Judiciary regulates this issue within its scope.

Being it therefore appropriate to regulate the use of Basque in the Public Administrations of Navarre, the Foral Decree no. 70/1994, of March 21, was first adopted and then the Foral Decree no. 135/1994, of July 4, on whose some provisions it has been deemed advisable to revise in order to guarantee the principle of legal certainty, to evaluate the use of Basque with the necessary means so that its usage be enforced, and to adapt to the sociolinguistic situation of Navarre on the basis of the experience gained.

For such purposes, in order to make possible the legal requirement set on the Public Administrations of the Basque-speaking area to conduct their actions, communications and notices bilingually, based on their duty to make real and effective the right and the choice of interested citizens, according to the rules establishing the administrative procedure, to conduct in any of the official languages, or in both at the same time, the administrative proceedings that correspond to them in the procedure being carried out, in compliance with Articles 10, 11 and 12 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language, the present Foral Decree, as an indispensable complement of the said Act, provides that the competent bodies of the Public Administrations in the Basque-speaking area, as regards their autonomy and their self-organisation capacities, may make provision of the necessary material elements, in order to guarantee such right.

As regards the dealings of these Public Administrations and subsidiary bodies with other Administrations, a distinction is made, firstly, as to the dealings with the State Administration and the Administration of Justice; in such case, they shall be subject to the legislation on Common Administrative Procedure and to the Organic Act on the Judiciary.

Whereas interadministrative dealings with the rest of Public Administrations in Navarre shall be ruled by the principle of will and autonomy of the parties, except when a party is an interested party in the procedure, according to the rules regulating the administrative procedure. In such case, the rest of interested citizens shall be subject to Articles 10, 11 and 12 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language.

Furthermore, pursuant to the constitutional doctrine, the distinction of specific requirement, as bestowed by the previous regulation on the command of Basque when it is a job requirement for certain positions, has been replaced by that of mandatory command, as this is more in line with the literal wording of Article 15.2 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language, so that the command of Basque may be included in the knowledge to be assessed according to the principles of merit and competence established in Article 103 of the Constitution.

Finally, the present revision, due to regulatory technique, has been done through a new text which replaces the previous one.

According to the decision delivered by the Council of Navarre in its sitting of January 14, 2003.

By virtue of it, on a proposal from the Minister of Presidency, Justice and Home Office of Navarre, and in compliance with the Agreement adopted by the Government of Navarre in its sitting of February tenth, two thousand and three,

DECREE:

TITLE I
General Provisions

Article 1
4. The present Foral Decree further develops the regulation of the normal and official use of Basque in the Public Administrations of Navarre.
Its scope includes the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre, the Local Administrations and the public law institutions connected with them.
5. The Decree’s essential objectives are the following:
a. In the Basque-speaking area, to allow for the use without distinction of either one of the official languages as a working language and as service language for citizens.
b. In the mixed area, to organise and enable the necessary staff to ensure the exercise of linguistic rights of citizens in this area.
c. In the provision of the central services of the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre, to organise and enable the necessary staff to ensure that users may be attended in Basque if they require it.
The central services of the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre are those, which, regardless of their concrete territorial location, are given to the whole population of Navarre.
6. The present Foral Decree shall be progressively implemented, according to the possibilities temporarily available to each Administration.

Article 2
The areas referred to in the present Foral Decree correspond, as regards their limits and their naming, to those established in Article 5 of the Foral Act no. 18/1986, of December 15, on the Basque Language.

Article 3
The application of the principle of mandatory nature and the assessment of the command of Basque as a merit for the appointment to job positions in the Public Administrations of Navarre shall be carried out under the terms and conditions derived from the provisions of the Foral Act on the Basque Language, the provisions of the present Foral Decree and the provisions that complement it.

Article 4
The Government of Navarre shall appoint, for each of the procedures foreseen in the present Foral Decree, the body that collaborates with and, as the case may be, coordinates the Departments of the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre, especially as regards the execution of the schemes for the use of Basque eventually approved by the Government of Navarre.
Moreover, it shall appoint the body that collaborates in the elaboration of the schemes for the use of Basque in the local institutions and in other public administrations who may apply for it, subject to the provisions of the present Foral Decree.

Article 5
The Government of Navarre and the public law institutions connected with the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre shall elaborate and approve the schemes aiming to progressively achieve the objectives established in Article 1.2 of the present Foral Decree.
Furthermore, the Local Administrations shall be able to elaborate their own schemes within their scope.

Article 6
The Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre, the Local Administrations and the public law institutions connected with them shall adopt measures aiming to progressively enable the necessary staff in their command and use of Basque, in order to progressively comply with the provisions of the Foral Act on the Basque Language, in the present Foral Decree and in the regulation eventually further developing it.

TITLE II
On the Basque Language in the Administration

CHAPTER I
Basque-Speaking Area

SECTION 1. General Provision

Article 7
The use of Basque and Castillian in the Public Administrations of Navarre and in the public law institutions connected with them, located in the Basque-speaking area, shall be ruled by the criteria established by the Foral Act on the Basque Language and the present Foral Decree, respecting both the right of citizens to freely choose any of the two official languages in which they be willing to be attended, and the right not to be discriminated based on language.

SECTION 2. External and Internal Use

Article 8
4. All administrative procedures shall be valid and shall have full legal effectiveness regardless of the language used.
5. Administrative procedures that constitute proper administrative actions, in the terms set out by the legal system, and whose notice is to be given to other physical or legal persons within the same area, shall be written in both languages, except when all interested parties, according to the rules that regulate the administrative procedure, expressly choose to use only one, pursuant to Articles 10.1, 11 and 12 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language.
6. The relevant competent bodies of the Public Administrations, plus their ancillary bodies, shall be able to establish the use of printed sheets, pattern sheets or forms written in Castillian, in Basque or bilingually, in order to carry out procedures for the interested parties, according to the previous paragraph.

SECTION 3. Dealings among the Public Administrations

Article 9
6. Documents, notices and administrative communications addressed by the Public Administrations and public law institutions connected with them and located in the Basque-speaking area to other bodies of the same area, shall be written in both official languages, either in a single or a double format, unless there is an express agreement by the parties concerned on using only one of them, as provided by the competent body of the Administration or the respective Institution.
7. In any case, in compliance with Articles 12 and 13 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language and in the terms therein, public officials who have the administrative authority to attest documents must issue the copies of the public documents bestowed before their respective Administrations and which take effect outside the Basque-speaking area in Castillian. Moreover, the issue of copies and certifications of entries placed upon the ancillary Registers of the Public Administrations shall be conducted in any of the official languages.
8. Dealings of the Public Administrations of the Basque-speaking area and its ancillary institutions with the State Administration and its Bodies shall be carried out in Castillian, unless they address bodies located in the territory of Navarre, in which case they may also use Basque pursuant to Article 36 of the Act on the Legal Regime of the Public Administrations and on the Common Administrative Procedure.
9. As regards the dealings with the Administration of Justice, the said Public Administrations shall abide by what has been established in the Organic Act on the Judiciary.
10. In interadministrative dealings, the Public Administrations of the Basque-speaking area may use the language that they freely agree to use with the other Administrations, unless the dealings arise from an administrative procedure in which the other Administrations are interested parties according to what the legislation regulating the administrative procedure sets out; in such case, Article 11 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language and Article 8.2 of the present Foral Decree shall be abided by.

SECTION 4. Dealings with the administered subjects

Article 10
4. Communications and notices addressed to physical or legal persons in the Basque-speaking area shall be bilingual, unless the interested parties expressly request the use of any of the two official languages, in compliance with Article 11 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language.
5. When the dealings derive from procedures in which the citizens or the other Public Administrations are interested parties, in the terms provided in Articles 8.2 and 9.5 of the present Foral Decree, they may use printed sheets, pattern sheets and forms, written in Castillian, in Basque or bilingually.
6. In oral communications, officials may attend to citizens in either one of the two official languages chosen by the latter.

SECTION 5. Image, Notices and publications

Article 11
3. Indicative signs of offices, bureaus and premises, the headings or letterheads of the stationery, official stamps and any other identifying and signaling elements shall be written bilingually.
4. Provisions and their publication in the Official Gazette as an efficiency requirement, as well as signs in urban roads and the proper names to be found in them, shall be written in Castillian and in Basque, according to Article 16 of the Foral Act on the Basque Language.

CHAPTER II
Mixed Area

SECTION 1. General Implementation Criteria

Article 12
4. The use of Basque and Castillian in the Public Administrations of Navarre located in the mixed area shall be regulated by the criteria established in the present Foral Decree.
5. Those Public Administrations in Navarre which provide their services in the mixed area shall take the appropriate measures aiming to ensure the exercice of the right of citizens to address the Administration in Basque, as provided in the present Foral Decree.
6. As for the central services of the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre located in Pamplona whose activity be addressed to the whole population, an administrative unit of official Basque-Castillian translation shall be established and complementary measures shall be taken aiming to ensure the provision of its basic administrative services in Basque, upon the users’ requirement. Other Public Administrations in the mixed area in Navarre shall have the power to create an administrative unit of translation for their central services. This possibility shall be developed within the framework of the plans refered to in Article 5 of the present Foral Decree.

SECTION 2. Material Means

Article 13
On printed sheets for internal use and stationery used by the services of the Public Administrations and public law institutions connected with them and located in the mixed area, the headings and letterheads shall be written in Castillian. If the printed sheets are for public use, the use of different forms in Castillian and in a bilingual setting shall be provided for, to be chosen by the interested party.

SECTION 3. Institutional Relations

Article 14
4. The documents, notices and administrative communications of the Public Administrations and public law institutions connected with and among them, or with other institutions in the Basque-speaking area, and located in the mixed area, may be bilingual in one single format, and they must be made in Castillian when only one language is used.
5. The documents, notices and administrative communications addressed by the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre and public law institutions connected with them, located in the mixed area, to other Administrations in the Basque-speaking and the mixed areas shall be written in Castillian, except those corresponding to administrative procedures which have been started in the Basque-speaking area and in Basque, in which case they may be further conducted bilingually.
6. The documents, notices and administrative communications addressed to the Public Administrations and public law institutions connected with them and not included in the previous paragraphs, shall be written in Castillian, while their bilingual version is also valid when they correspond to administrative procedures which have been started in the Basque-speaking area and in Basque.

SECTION 4. Relations with the administered subjects

Article 15
3. Communications and notices addressed by the services of the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre located in the mixed area to physical and legal persons in the Basque-speaking area shall be carried out in Castillian, unless the interested parties expressly request to use Basque, in which case they may be carried out bilingually.
4. In printed sheets and forms to be used by physical or legal persons in the mixed area, the written document written only in Castillian or in a Castillian-Basque bilingual form may be used, although in separate units to be chosen by the interested party, according to his or her best interest.

SECTION 5. Image, Notices and Publications

Article 16
4. Indicative signs of offices, bureaus and premises of the Public Administrations of Navarre and public law institutions connected with them, located in the mixed area, as well as headings and letterheads on the stationery, official stamps and any other identifying and signaling elements shall be written bilingually.
5. Provisions, warnings, publications, announcements and advertisements of any kind shall be written in Castillian.
6. Without prejudice of what has been established in the above paragraph, information leaflets, graphical material for campaigns, publications, or other similar writings addressed by the central services of the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre to the whole population, shall be only written in Castillian, or in a bilingual single edition, or in different editions in Castillian and in Basque, as the case may be, as decided by the holder of the office of Minister in charge of the publication.

CHAPTER III
Non-Basque-Speaking Area

Article 17
3. Public Administrations in the non-Basque-speaking area shall require the interested parties to simultaneously submit a translation in Castillian of the documents addressed to them in Basque or they may use official translation services to attend the citizens who, in the exercice of their rights, may address them only in Basque.
4. All procedures, printed sheets, stamps, documentation, notices, communications, signals, signs, publications and advertisements of the Public Administrations in the non-Basque-speaking area and public law institutions connected with them, shall be carried out in Castillian.

TITLE III
Mandatory Command and Assessment of the Basque Language in the Admission and Appointment of Job Positions

CHAPTER I
Basque-Speaking Area

Article 18
5. The Public Administrations of Navarre shall lay out the reasons for their decision and point out in their respective organic staff the job positions for which the command of Basque is mandatory in order to be admitted to them on the basis of their competential content, of what the present Foral Decree determines and of the demand, and they shall express the degree of command that corresponds to the content of such job positions.
6. Such language requirement shall be stated afterwards in the corresponding public job offers and in the calls for the job positions.
7. Those who are appointed for such positions may only take part afterwards in the provision of the corresponding job vacancies for whose fulfilment the command of Basque is mandatory.
8. The acquired rights of those who do not have a command of Basque and have job positions for which the command of Basque will be mandatory in the future shall be respected. In any case, they shall be offered the possibility to participate voluntarily in the Basque-learning actions that may be carried out.

Article 19
For the admission and appointment of the rest of job positions, whenever they are carried out through a merit tender, the command of Basque shall be considered as a qualified merit, among others.

Article 20
3. For job positions of all levels in which the command of Basque is mandatory for their fulfilment, or as a qualified merit, the command of Basque may be certified by means of the Certificate of Competency issued by an Official Language School, or by a degree officially acknowledged as equivalent, or by passing a test that determines whether the candidate meets the needed language requirement to be part of the organic staff, or in the interview.
4. The Public Administration of the Foral Community, as long as it is required to do so and within the means available, shall prepare the language level tests, collaborate in the official translation tasks, in the appraisal of job positions in order to assess the Basque language as a specific knowledge, in the weighting of the scales used for the provision of job positions and in the planned Basque-learning courses for public employees.

Article 21
3. In the cases in which the command of Basque must be assessed as a qualified merit among others in the Basque-speaking area, the increase of the proportion of such assessment to the marking applied as a merit to the command of French, English or German, which are working languages in the European Union, shall never be higher than 10% of it, and the concrete quantification shall be specified in the corresponding call for the job position.
4. Such merits shall be certified according to the criteria set out in Article 20 of the present Foral Decree.

CHAPTER II
Mixed Area

Article 22
4. The Public Administrations of Navarre located in the Mixed Area have no obligation to specify the command of Basque as mandatory in order to get or provide the job positions included in their staff, except in those devoted to Basque-Castillian translation tasks.
Whenever the command of Basque for a certain job position is specified as mandatory in the Mixed Area, the provisions included in paragraphs 1 to 4 of Article 18 of the present Foral Decree shall be applied.
5. The Public Administrations of Navarre located in the mixed area may voluntarily specify the concrete job positions in their basic administrative services in such a way that the command of Basque be considered as a merit among others in order to get or provide the said job positions, and they shall lay out the reasons for their decision and precisely indicate it in the organic staff.
6. The certification of the command of Basque shall be carried out according to Article 20 of the present Foral Decree.

Article 23
3. The assessment of the command of Basque as a merit in the Mixed Area, whenever it is considered in such a way, shall never take more than 5% of the punctuation applied when taking into consideration the merit of having a command of French, English or German, which are working languages in the European Union, and the concrete quantification shall be specified in the corresponding call for the job position.
4. Such merits shall be certified according to the criteria set out in Article 20 of the present Foral Decree.

CHAPTER III
Language Training of the Staff

Article 24
The Public Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre shall organise Basque training courses in order to ensure the availability of the necessary and sufficient amount of workers who are able to use Basque, to ensure the fulfilment of the objectives established in the Foral Act on the Basque Language, in the present Foral Decree and in the regulations and schemes that derive from their implementation.
The modalities of such courses, the admission and participation conditions, and the obligations to colaborate in the task of attending the public in Basque and carrying out Basque-Castillian translations, among others, which are to be assumed by those who voluntarily take part in them, shall be set according to the rules.

ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS

First
The Government of Navarre shall collaborate with the State Administration in order that the competent bodies may take measures aiming to progressively train and enable the staff of the State Administration located in Navarre and who must use Basque for the provision of their administrative services to use Basque, pursuant to the Order of July 20, 1990, issued by the Ministry for the Public Administrations, to the Act on the Legal Regime of the Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure, and to the present Foral Decree.

Second
Following a proposal by the Minister of Presidency, Justice and Home Office of the Government of Navarre, an Agreement shall be made which is consistent with the present Foral Decree and which regulates the elaboration of definitive scales for any call for the admission and appointment of job positions, including the consideration of the specific merit of having a command of French, English or German, as they are working languages in the European Union, as well as the corresponding merit of having a command of Basque.

Third
In order to regulate what is involved in the specificity of the use and the assessment of Basque in the civil teaching staff, the appropriate Agreement shall be made following a proposal by the Minister of Education and Culture, which is to adjust the previous regulations to the present Foral Decree.

Fourth
Inasmuch as the present Foral Decree establishes as valid the bilingual form on signs, signals, documents, printed sheets, forms, stamps, notices, publications, advertisements, and communications, such bilingual form may be carried out through separate physical media for Castillian and Basque, or together, pursuant to what the competent body of the Administration or of the respective Institution establishes, unless it is expressly specified in the present Foral Decree.

Fifth
Whenever it is necessary to settle a conflict between the interpretation of the content of official documents in the Castillian and Basque versions, the Public Administrations and the Institutions connected with them shall firstly abide by and respect the one that corresponds to the document written in Castillian.

ABROGATIVE PROVISION

All provisions of an equal or inferior status which are opposed to what has been established in the present Foral Decree shall be repealed; and, in an explicit way, the whole content of the Foral Decree No. 135/1994, of July 4, on the Regulation of the Use of Basque in the Public Administrations of Navarre, as well as the regulations developed by virtue of it, shall be also repealed.

TRANSITIONAL PROVISION

The adjustment of all elements of image, communication, notices, and publications, under the terms set out in Articles 16 and 17 of the present Foral Decree, shall be progressively and continuously carried out by the Public Administrations of Navarre and their depending bodies until they are totally fulfilled, and, to do so, any budjetary availabilities foreseen for the normal maintenance, conservation and replacement of such elements shall be applied.

FINAL PROVISIONS

First
The Minister of Presidency, Justice and Home Office of Navarre shall be empowered to order as many provisions as are necessary for the execution and development of the present Foral Decree.

Second
The present Foral Decree shall enter into force on the same day of its publication in the "OFFICIAL GAZETTE of Navarre"[2] .

Pamplona, February tenth, two thousand and three.

The President of the Government of Navarre, Miguel Sanz Sesma.

The Minister of Presidency, Justice and Home Office of Navarre, Rafael Gurrea Induráin.

[1]	Translator’s note: Foral means “related with the fueros”, which are historical legal privileges. The Autonomous Community (regional level) of Navarre is known as Comunidad Foral de Navarra (Foral Community of Navarre).
[2]	Translator’s note: Translator’s note: The Decree was published on February 12, 2003.