BRATISLAVA, September 17, (WEBNOVINY) — Minister of Culture and Tourism Krajcer Daniel (SaS) proposes an amendment to the State Language Act, with planned effectiveness as of January 1, 2011, which would bring more liberal terms for use of languages of national minorities. It should be on the Cabinet’s agenda next Wednesday. In a number of provisions, the amendment returns to the original version of the State Language Law of 1999. That was amended last year by the government of Robert Fico and became effective on September 1, 2009.
The new amendment suggests that the Ministry of Culture would no longer oversee compliance with the legislation in official communications. He argues that there is another state supervision of public authorities. Under the current law, the Ministry of Culture can issue fines for language law violations ranging from EUR 100 to EUR 5,000. According to the new legislation, the ministry would above all notify perpetrators of a violation and provide sufficient time to correct the violation. Penalties are understood only as a last resort in extreme situations. Furthermore, they are optional, i.e., the department can decide whether it would issue a fine or not. The amendment foresees the cancellation of penalties for occasional printed material in the minority language, for cultural purposes, catalogs, galleries, museums, libraries, cinemas, theaters, concerts, and other cultural events.
The previous government enacted restrictions on the use of minority languages in municipal council meetings in villages with at least twenty percent minority population. The current amendment will enable such meetings to be held in other than the state language if every participant agrees. The text refers to the right a member of a municipal council to use in that body the language of a minority, as guaranteed by the State Language Law from eleven years ago. „Interpreting into the state language is provided for by the community,“ said the ministry in the explanatory memorandum to the draft bill.
The Culture Ministry also proposes to omit the current provision under which the ministry must approve the texts on new monuments, memorials, or commemorative plaques, and to ensure compliance with the State Language Law. Builders will be able, if necessary, to ask the department for an opinion, but this will not be required by law. Fico’s government revised the law so that it required bilingual texts on new monuments, memorials or commemorative plaques, but also in advertisements and other public communications, in such a way that the Slovak text comes first and then text in a minority language. The new amendment does not contain this condition.
The new amendment further omits the duty for minority schools to maintain bilingual documentation in schools and school facilities in which teach in minority languages.
The amendment exempts from the mandatory use of the state language non-public sector employees in transport, posts, telecommunications, and firefighters. „Since these areas are now linked mainly to private business activities that are the subject of trade relations, the use of language in these areas is left to self-regulation and the State Language Law would not be applied there,“ reads the explanatory memorandum to the amendment. Communication in the state language in official communications, however, continues to be required for employees of the public administration, civil servants, members of the armed forces and armed corps, firefighters and rescue services. The new amendment allows the use of minority languages by the municipal police in those municipalities where the minority makes up at least twenty percent of the population. It allows using it when communicating in medical and social care facilities if the member of staff and the patient can communicate in that language.
Slovakia’s center-right governing coalition has committed to change the State Language Law in the government’s program statement for the years 2010-2014. It aims to address deficiencies in the amendment to the State Language Law, which was adopted in 2009 by the government of Robert Fico. The new government explains that it this amendment it focuses on the current text that is difficult to interpret in practice.
SITA
