MINELRES: EBLUL welcomes decision of Navarre's Superior Court to abolish Basque language decree

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Margret Oberhofer <margret@eblul.org>


PRESS RELEASE

EBLUL welcomes decision of Navarre�s Superior Court to abolish Basque
language decree

Brussels, 10.07.02 � The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages
welcomes the decision of the Navarre�s Superior Court (TSJN) to cancel
the Basque language decree 372/2000. The main objective of the degree
was to guarantee the status of Spanish as the official language.
However, the autonomous legal system in Spain establishes that those
areas with a second language, such as Navarre and the Basque Country,
must guarantee that all official institutions should be completely
bilingual.

"We very much welcome the decision of the Superior Court. We viewed
this recent development in the region with concern, as it was a clear
regress in the respect for linguistic diversity", says Bojan Brezigar,
President of EBLUL. "Now we feel that the European values and the
respect for regional and minority languages emerged victoriously."

The degree was approved in December 2000 by the regional government of
Navarre and put into practice in February 2001 in the northern part of
area, where most of the population speaks and understands this
language. It led to a linguistic policy that, among other things,
reduced the number of public jobs that previously required an official
degree in Basque. It also replaced a number of bilingual signs with
monolingual Spanish ones and allowed the printing of administrative
documents exclusively in Spanish.

In order to stop this threatening development for the language some
public authorities of the region brought the issue to the court.  Now
Navarre�s Superior Court decided that the approval of the decree was
not correct; two essential reports, which should have been ordered
before were ignored. As it was a decision by the highest judicial
institution in the territory, the verdict is permanent and cannot be
brought to another court.

EUROPEAN BUREAU FOR
LESSER USED LANGUAGES (EBLUL)
www.eblul.org

Rue Saint-Josse 49/Sint-Jooststraat 49
B-1210 Bruxelles/Brussel

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