Bratislava, Slovakia
The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which has 46 member states, acknowledged Slovakia’s efforts to protect and promote minority languages, particularly Hungarian. However, it urged further measures to support their use in education, public administration, the media, and healthcare.
In its latest report on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), the Committee of Experts responsible for monitoring the Charter’s implementation particularly emphasized that minority languages in Slovakia are protected.
The legislation allows the use of minority languages in many areas. However, certain aspects of the policies, laws, and measures of the Slovak government are not in line with the obligations it undertook under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The legislation still contains provisions that exclude, restrict, or hinder the use of minority languages—especially in the areas of justice, public administration, media, and economic and social life,
the experts noted.
The report also pointed out that the situation of minority languages in the field of education remains inconsistent.
While Hungarian is used at all levels of education, the situation of most other minority languages still does not fully meet the obligation to provide instruction in these languages at various levels of education.
The report proposed measures to ensure that minority languages can be used in both oral and written communication with local branches of state and regional authorities, municipal administrations, and public service providers.
Regarding the media, the experts expressed concern about the limited presence of minority languages in the programming of public and private broadcasters.
They believed that broadcasting time for minority languages should be extended and offered more frequently.
In the field of healthcare, it was noted that oral communication is currently possible in Hungarian and Romani. However, the need was highlighted for Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, German, Polish, Rusyn, and Ukrainian to also be used in social service institutions.
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Via MTI, Featured image: Wikimedia Commons
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