Opposition mounts to Slovakia's language law

22.07.09 - 19:39 ... source : European Bureau For Lesser-Used Languages - EBLUL

... Wednesday, 22 July 2009 The Slovak Parliament passed a controversial amendment of the Slovak Language Law on Tuesday, 30 June, as reported on Eurolang. The law restricts the use of languages other than Slovak in public communication and introduces fines amounting up to 5,000 euros. Opposition to the new law has been mounting across Europe with MEPs, member states and the OSCE all voicing their concerns over a law which will inflict punishment for "incorrect language use". One example is that patients in health care wanting to use their minority language in settlements where the percentage of the minority population is below 20% will be subject to these sanctions. The system will be supervised by a new unit considered as a language police. The law seeks to regulate the language use of all public meetings, events, gatherings and other forms of public communication by insisting on the parallel use of the Slovak language. "Public" ...» Next (HTML)