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SMK Criticises Government's Measures to Implement Language Act
Wednesday 02 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 2 (TASR) - The Slovak ethnic-Hungarian SMK party said on Wednesday that it doesn't like measures proposed by the Culture Ministry to implement the State Language Act.
The Government proposal has been submitted for comments to ministries. SMK, however, says the measures tend to complicate the situation rather than solve the problems associated with the Act.
SMK told TASR that the measures only confirm the chaotic and wanton application of the Act, which SMK opposes because it says it discriminates against Hungarians by forcing them to use the official state language – Slovak.
The proposal is also ill-timed, according to SMK. That's because the legislation is currently being evaluated by the Venice Commission and the results won't be known until early in the new year.
According to SMK, the implementation measures – the so-called instruction manual – have been introduced to highlight the Government's pseudo-activities to the EC. Meanwhile, the legal status and applicability of the measures are also questionable. Moreover, the measures make the legislation seem even more unclear and don't address the applicability of the Act itself, according to SMK.
The measures weren't discussed with legitimate representatives of the Hungarian community in Slovakia, and SMK considers this to be a violation of basic democratic principles.
Culture Ministry spokesperson Jozef Bednar says that the ministry rejects this assertion and he indicates that it's only part of a political agenda of a non-standard ethnic party that was against the Act right from the start. Bednar claims that the aim of the Act's critics is to discriminate against Slovak-nationality Slovak citizens.
Bednar also said that the measures don't change the content of the legislation – which is already in effect – and the measures will be submitted to the Government as promised by January 1, 2010.
The measures were, according to Bednar, prepared in cooperation with the experts working for the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner Knut Vollebaek. Bednar said the measures also include proposals from representatives of national minorities in Slovakia, for example, from a body called the Round Table of Hungarians in Slovakia.
The Round Table deems the basic philosophy of the Act as unacceptable, because it is based on the concept of a national state language in a country that is multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. "The legislation intervenes vis-a-vis privacy, freedom of speech and freedom of enterprise," according to Round Table.
Bednar says that, unlike Round Table, other national minorities and also Vollebaek don't reject the language legislation as a whole. Vollebaek said that the Act is in accord with international standards and follows a legitimate goal.
The ministry spokesman also said that he is sorry the Round Table of Hungarians in Slovakia gave way to pressures from SMK and didn't take the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue about the measures.
Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Peter Stano says that the ministry won't comment on the ideas of political parties, and is proceeding in this matter in line with legitimate Slovak partners – that is, with the OSCE High Commissioner's Office and the Hungarian Government.
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