BRATISLAVA, June 28, (WEBNOVINY) — The right to use a minority language in official communication will be extended and the quorum for its use will be changed from twenty to fifteen percent over time. The Slovak Parliament defeated the veto of President Ivan Gasparovic and again approved the revised bill governing the use of minority languages. President Gasparovic returned the amendment to parliament and recommended to reject it as a whole. However, the deputies did not agree with his ten-page list of comments.
Despite the fact that the deputies agreed on a 15-percent quorum, the list of multilingual municipalities concerned will not be extended until 2021; on the other hand, none of the municipalities will lose its multilingual status until 2031. For acquiring a bilingual status, it will be necessary for the municipality to cross the 15-percent threshold in two consecutive population censuses, whose results will be released after July 1 of this year. To withdraw the bilingual status, the proportion of the members of ethnic minorities in a municipality needs to sink below 15 percent three times in a row in a census that takes place once in ten years.
The amendment expands the right to the use of a minority language in official communication. Public bodies will be obliged to answer verbal or written applications in both official and minority languages and provide forms to citizens in minority languages, too. The names of municipalities at railway stations can be posted in minority languages as well, according to the new rules, but the Slovak name must come first and letters cannot be smaller than the one in the minority language. All names and announcements serving to inform the public, for example in shops, restaurants, bus and railway stations and at memorials, as well as commemorative plaques, can be in a minority language but the Slovak version has to be present.
The new version of the law also introduces fines from EUR 50 to EUR 2,500 for violations of the law’s stipulations. The Cabinet Office will deal with administrative transgressions, but it first has to notify the transgressor. If the situation is not remedied in the set period, a fine will be levied.
The opposition strongly criticized the bill and described it as useless and dangerous. They connected it with Hungarization, establishment of language ghettos, federalization or excessive protection of minority language rights as well as with discrimination against Slovaks. Minister Rudolf Chmel (MOST-HID), author of the bill; however, believes that his amendment also opens space for use of German, Roma and Ruthenian minority languages.
SITA