| Brussels Deliberates The State Language Act |
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| Monday, 01 February 2010 | |
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Not all objections of the European Commission to the state language act guidelines have been accepted by Slovakia. The government`s methodical guidelines to the state language act were informally assessed by the European Commission. The document of the EC, which comprises eleven comments to the content and criticizes the form of the guidelines, is not legally binding. The Ministry of Culture has chosen only some of the EC`s notes, for instance, the legal form of the methodical guidelines has remained intact – it remained legally not binding. „The question remains, why the executive provisions have not been approved in a way which would provide the citizens with higher standard of legal security” – says the document. The European Commission states several times, that on the grounds of the concerned provisions may occur discrimination, with particular regard to the regular and irregular publications and the medical institutions. According to the document, the publications may be forced to be issued exclusively in Slovak language and, on the contrary, the medical workers are not obliged to communicate in the minority language, even if they speak the particular language. The EC also criticizes „the converse logics related to the fundamental rights, where the state interests prevail over the rights of the individuals”. SMK-MKP is convinced, that the assessment of the European Commission calls for the necessity of „complex alteration of the act” and the concerned act has not yet quitted its presence on the European forum. „SMK-MKP is convinced that in spite of the childish struggle of ministers Maďarič (culture) and Lajčák (foreign affairs), in the civilized part of Europe it is clear to everyone, that the adoption of such a dilettante state language act was an unnecessary mistake” - declares the party in its communique. „This document is a part of the informal communication, that the member states and the European Commission often use during the discussion over the matters of mutual interest” – commented the EC`s remarks the spokesman of the minister of foreign affairs. The head of the EC Representation in Slovakia, Andrea Elschek-Matis says, this kind of document is a regular outcome of the communication between the member state and the Commission in the field of legislation. (SME, 12 Jan 2010) |
Party of the Hungarian Coalition
-HU
-SK
