Civil Society Dialogue

1
Civil Society Dialogue

• Flensburg, the 1st of April 2006

2
Who am I?

• Johan Häggman
• Policy Advisor on Regional and Minority
  Languages.
• The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
  in the European Parliament

3
Interim report

• Answers from Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Estonia,
  Latvia, Lithuania.
• Mostly from the governmental representatives.
• One-sided.
• More answers from the minorities needed for the
  final evaluation.
• A short summary, more than an evaluation.

4
Organisational questions

• Political parties and representation
• Germany Südschleswigscher Wählerverband, SSW
• Denmark Schlesvig Parti
• Estonia The Constitution Party and the Russian
  Party
• Latvia For Human Rights in a United Latvia
• No parties in Hungary.
• Ranking the political representation
• Sydslesvigsk førening good
• Domowina sufficient
• In Estonia, very little support for the Russian
  parties.
• Attempts to create minority parties in Hungary.
  

5
Legal aspects International agreements

• The Bonn-Copenhaguen declarations.
• The European Charter for Regional and Minority
  Languages, signed and ratified by Denmark,
  Germany and Hungary.
• The Baltic states have signed and ratified UN
  international conventions, agreements, and
  protocols dealing with national minorities
  rights, human rights, discrimination, and
  language rights.

6
National legislation

• Extensive legislation in all countries.
• Still room for improvement.
• Legislation concerning the Danes and Frisians in
  Schleswig-Holstein.
• The Sorbian laws adopted in 1948 by the
  Parliament in Saxony.
• The recognition of German Sinti and Roma as a
  national minority on May 11, 1995.

7
National legislation

• Specific legislation concerning German Sinti and
  Roma still lacking.
• The Danes in Germany find the situation very
  good , whereas the Sorbs rate it as merely
  sufficient.
• Sorbs complain about the implementation of the
  laws in education and administration.
• Demand for a separate law on national minorities
  in Estonia.

8
Participation

• Forms of participation
• Particularly developed in Germany, represented at
  all levels. The current provisions of
  participation are classified as good  by the
  Danish minority and sufficient by the sorbs.
• Kontaktudvalg Contact commission in the Danish
  Parliament, guaranteeing a voice for the German
  minority.
• State Secretaries in Hungary and representation
  at the ministry of education and culture.
• Hungary Department for National and Ethnic
  Minorities.

9
Participation

• Latvia Through meeting of consultative boards,
  working groups and weekly meetings of the state
  secretaries.
• Estonia National minority roundtables that
  include representatives of national minorities,
  political parties, and researchers, who
  constantly monitor the situation of national
  minorities and provide advice for changes in
  legislation and practices in state and local
  governmental bodies. Minorities may also
  participate in the discussion on draft
  legislation
• Hungary At the preparatory stage. Consultative
  role in committees concerning minority issues.

10
Culture

• In Germany articles in the legislation of the
  different states provide the basis for cultural
  activities.
• Financial support from Denmark for Danish
  cultural events in Schleswig-Holstein, as well as
  German events in southern Denmark.
• Latvia has signed international agreements in the
  field of culture with many countries.

11
Culture

• In Estonia minorities receive basic support and
  project support. The largest national minority
  the Russians have their own cultural
  institutions across the country, financed by the
  state and by local governments.
• Cultural organisations are financially supported
  by the Hungarian state.
• In Lithuania, the state has established cultural
  centres which it supports financially.

12
Language

• In Germany promoted through state legislation.
  Sorbian in Saxony and Brandenburg and Danish and
  Frisian in Schleswig-Holstein.
• In Estonia national minorities have the right to
  preserve their native languages, and the state
  supports this financially and morally.
• The minority language speakers in Hungary have
  the right to use their language with the local
  authorities. On initiative bilingual streetsigns.
  

13
Education

• Education is provided in the minority language in
  all countries.
• The New Regulations of the Law on Education of
  the Republic of Lithuania (2003) guarantees the
  representatives of the national minorities the
  right to receive instruction in their native
  tongue. In the academic year 2004-2005, there
  were 173 schools in which the language of
  instruction was not Lithuanian.

14
Education

• The Latvian government finances and provides
  education in eight minority languages, even in
  cases where only a small number of children are
  seeking instruction in a certain language.
• In Denmark German schools fall under the same law
  as the Danish free schools.
• The Danish minority has the right to education in
  the Danish language in all of Schleswig-Holstein,
  according to a declaration by the government of
  Federal Republic of Germany in 1955.

15
Education

• In Brandenburg is Sorbian taught as a subject and
  pupils in Saxony can learn the language as mother
  tongue, second language or foreign language.
• In Estonia a parallel state educational system
  exists in Russian and by law the national
  minorities are guaranteed the right to receive
  instruction in their native language a certain
  number of hours in schools where the language of
  instruction is not their native language.

16
Education

• The minority communities in Hungary can organise
  bilingual education or education in their mother
  tongue at all levels from kindergarten to
  university.

17
Media

• Right to minority language media in all
  countries.
• Positive discrimination in most.
• Currently there are 15 national minority
  newspapers published, 8 TV programmes on national
  TV and 6 radio programmes in minority languages
  on national radio in Lithuania.

18
Media

• There is a big variety of private Russian media
  resources in Latvia, such as daily newspapers,
  radio and TV channels. Newspapers are also
  published in other minority languages.
• Flensborg Avis and Serbske Nowiny are daily
  minority newspapers in Germany and Nowy Casnik,
  Rozhlad, Serbska Sula and Katolski Posol and
  Plomjo/Plomje sorbian magazines. Domowina is an
  important publishing house.

19
Media

• Der Nordschleswiger is a German daily newspaper
  in Denmark.
• The Estonian state provides partial financial
  support minority language newspapers, radio
  stations, TV channels and Internet portals.

20
Social policy

• Many national programmes and projects exist in
  Estonia which deal with reducing the number of
  persons belonging to minorities ending up in drug
  addiction, crime etc.

21
Preliminary conclusions

• Too early for any far-going conclusions.
• The minority point of view not yet expressed.
• Different situations in Germany, Denmark and
  Hungary on the one hand and the Baltic states on
  the other.