Raad van Europa constateert intolerantie voor minderheidstalen in Kroatië (en)

Strasbourg, 08.09.2005 - A new Council of Europe report warns of a worrying decline in the number of speakers of all minority languages in Croatia.

Croatian speakers are now more tolerant of minority languages - but the overall culture of Croatia does not show enough respect for them, says the report. It also pinpoints a special problem with the Serbian language.

At the same time the report - which has been made public today by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers - welcomes new laws to protect linguistic minorities in Croatia, although it points out that some provisions may still lead to restrictions incompatible with the Charter.

The report has been drawn up by a committee of independent experts for the second evaluation of Croatia's application of the European Charter for Regional and Minority languages. Its recommendations, endorsed by the Committee of Ministers, include a coherent strategy for teacher training, adequate teaching materials for minority language education, increasing the presence of minority languages on television, and ensuring that regional or minority languages are used for public services, where appropriate. It also calls for all relevant place names to be used bilingually, and for some of the local authorities concerned to drop their reluctance to grant protection to minority languages.

The text of the report and recommendation can be downloaded from the Charter's website: http://www.coe.int/minlang ("Reports and Recommendations" section).

Further information can be found on the Charter's website, or by contacting the Charter Secretariat at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (Directorate of Co-operation for Local and Regional Democracy, DG I - Legal Affairs, F-67075 Strasbourg, tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 22 66).

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