The president of the Romanian delegation at PACE, the UDMR senator Frunda Gyorgy, proposed the amendment of the legislation, so that the mother tongue is used where the minority represents 10% of the population.
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As president of the Romanian delegation at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), the UDMR senator Frunda Gyorgy stated on Saturday, the 4th of October, that the legislation must be amended so that the mother tongue becomes mandatory in areas where the minority represents 10% of the population.
“The 20% threshold must be lowered, and a target for the new Parliament should be to bring it down to a maximum of 10%, wherever we have minorities, to make the use of the mother tongue mandatory. And where (the share) is below 10%, the use of the mother tongue should be possible”, stated Frunda at the “Bilinguism – fundamental element in coexistence” seminar, organized by the Bernady Gyorgy Foundation, according to the press agencies.
Frunda pointed out Sighisoara as an “example of open-mindedness”, where the name of the locality appears in German as well, although the German minority represents only 2%, together with the example of Sibiu.
At the same time, Frunda said that the legislation on using the mother tongue in court must be amended, saying that the Romanian legislation in the field is incomplete. He stated that if Borbely Laszlo, his colleague of Hungarian origin, goes to court in a trial against his Hungarian neighbor for property delineation, he must hire Hungarian language interpreters, but no interpreter would stay in court all day long, for ten RON per day, when they can earn several times more in a translation office.
“Legislative amendments are needed, to promote the hiring of more judges who speak Hungarian or Romani, to collaborate with the prosecutors, police officers who speak Hungarian or Romani", said Frunda, adding that a community can best express what they want in their mother tongue.
The senator indicated that improvements can be brought to the public administration and the Police, given that a member of a minority is faced with difficulties in practice, for instance by being pushed over at a desk if they speak their mother tongue.
Frunda defined the existing situation from Tirgu Mures as “mockery”, given that the street name is only partially translated, namely the term “street” by “utca’ (“street” in Hungarian – the editor’s note), and the name of certain personalities are not mentioned in the respective mother tongue – such as Dozsa Gyorgy (Gheorghe Doja).
“The Hungarian, the mother tongue, should be used in the Local Council as well. In 1912, Maniu started his speech in the Hungarian Parliament in Romanian and when asked why he is doing this, given that he knows Hungarian very well, he said that if you don’t practice a right, you tend to forget it. This is the truth. If our colleagues do not use Hungarian in the Local Council, several years from now we shall be faced with initiatives of eradicating the Hungarian language", said Frunda.
Moreover, the senator added that, if he were Romanian, he would encourage his children to learn Hungarian, because it is to their best interest to know the “neighbor’s language”. He stated that in Strasbourg, he sees every day each street name written down in two languages, in French and in German, and not word-for-word, but maintaining the local traditional names, although France is only a signatory of the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages, and did not ratify it.
“If you go to the Local Council from Strasbourg and speak Alsacian, which is a German dialect, you are answered in the respective language, without even having legislation for this. What should we expect in the future? I think we will get to the point where everyone will speak their own language in the European Union. The future belongs to multi-linguism and multi-culturality, languages that complement each other. This is the normality I wish for you and for all of us”, said the president of the Romanian delegation at PACE.
The senator also added that Tirgu Mures has “solid traditions that can be resumed” in the field of multi-culturality, specifying that there are problems and tensions in places in Europe where minorities were not allowed to speak their mother tongue and that, on the other hand, experience shows the advancement of the countries where steps have been taken so that the majority accepts the use of the minorities’ mother tongue.
“The European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages is ratified by Romania and we exceed the average level proposed by the Charter. Now the question is whether we are satisfied, whether we can apply the legislation in more good faith", added Frunda. (DIVERS – www.divers.ro)