EDITORIAL

Lately, Turkey’s accession to the EU has raised debate. We can see that this country is making efforts to get closer to the EU, after having adopted a new penal code. According to some people, this constituted the last obstacle to a report by the European Commission in favour to the opening of the talks concerning Turkey’s accession. However, regarding minority and linguistic rights Turkey still has some job to do.

In this issue of the Bulletin we include two regulations passed by the Turkish Parliament: one concerning the teaching of different languages and dialects, and the other concerning the broadcasting by the public and private radio and television companies in different languages and dialects. Both regulations amend the previous ones (the first one amends a regulation of the same title of December 18, 2002, published in Bulletin n. 53, and the second one amends also a regulation of the same title of September 20, 2002). Actually, the amends show a slight improvement concerning linguistic rights.

On the other hand, we also publish the amendment of the Act on Upper Secondary School of Finland, adopted by the Finish Parliament on 13th August 2004. The reform, which actually turns Swedish into a voluntary subject, has been quite controversial and has also raised debate among Finnish political parties. Until now, in the matriculation examination the tests in the mother tongue and in the second national language (i.e. Finish and Swedish) were compulsory, while in accordance with the new amendment only the test in the mother tongue will be compulsory. As a consequence, the great bulk of the population who have Finish as their mother tongue, will now have the choice not to be tested in Swedish, therefore making the knowledge of this language not necessary. By contrast, the need of the Swedish speaking population to learn Finish is more than obvious.

Finally, in the international framework we present a series of recommendations by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) on the application of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in Denmark and Slovenia. Regarding 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. Regarding Slovenia, the Council mainly asks the authorities to reconsider its position towards the Croatian language and to clarify the issue of the traditional presence of the Serbian and Bosnian languages.