[lg policy] Ukraine: Odesa City Council Grants Russian Status Of Regional Language

[Harold Schiffman]

Odesa City Council Grants Russian Status Of Regional Language (13:19,
Monday, August 13, 2012)

Ukrainian News Agency

The Odesa Municipal Council at its extraordinary session on Monday has
passed a decision under which Russian was granted status of a regional
language in the city. This decision received votes of 73 Councilors
out of 111 present (the city council has 120 seats in all). The
document was adopted in frames of realisation of provisions of the Law
on Principles of the State Language Policy, which had taken effect.
In course discussion of the project Councilor Oleksii Kosmin stressed
that the term 'regional minorities' languages' emerged in the
Ukrainian society in 2003.

"The main condition of the law is the following: for a regional
language to fall under the scope of the law it is necessary that more
than ten percent of the population regard it their mother tongue.
Under the latest census, Russian is mother tongue for more than ten
percent of Odesa residents," he said. Kosmin says the adopted law
offers the city council new opportunities for developing and
preserving the Russian language.

"The making of this decision will enable harmonisation of the language
relations and will afford an opportunity of free choice of language of
interethnic communication in the city, where the word 'Odessa' writes
with double 's' for two centuries," the Councilor added. In his turn,
Odesa Mayor Oleksii Kostusev added that 89% of Odesites are more
comfortable to talk, read and communicate in Russian.

"No doubts, overwhelming majority of Odesites will back this
decision," said Kostusev. The session finished work at once after the
decision was passed. The endorsed document envisages usage of Russian
on the city territory as a regional language. In particular, the city
council bodies have been tasked to ensure adoption of the city council
and executive committee acts in Russian alongside the state language;
usage of Russian in work, record keeping, documentation,
correspondence alongside the state language.

Apart from this, the document obliges to ensure communication and
correspondence in Russian with the persons who apply the city council
bodies and communal enterprises with applications, complaints,
propositions, inquiries; release of print products of service and
accessorial designation (blanks, forms, slips, tickets and so on). The
decision also supposes usage of Russian alongside the state language
in the city toponymy, manufacturing of signposts and plaques in
Russian and Ukrainian; placemen of all forms of audiovisual
advertisements on the city territory by the advertiser's wish.

The mentioned decision also instructs the city council's standing
commission on the realisation of the programme Preservation and
Development of Russian in Odesa City before October 1, 2012 to bring
in the council for consideration proposals on refinements to the
programme, factoring in the language policy norms.

The Office for Education and Science by October 1 has to ensure
collection of applications from parents of fosterlings and students
(from students themselves if of full age) of infant and secondary
educational institutions declaring the wish to serve apprenticeship
(nurturing) in Ukrainian or Russian Kostusev is in charge for
fulfillment of this decision.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, on August 8 about 1,500 people
were rallying outside the Odesa Regional State Administration in
support of signing the Law on Principles of the State Language Policy
by President Viktor Yanukovych.

Yanukovych on August 8 signed the bill into law, stipulating official
usage of regional languages in the work of local bodies of power, if
at least 10% of the inhabitants are the language native speakers.

In the context of the European Charter for Regional and Minority
Languages the law on the language policy envisages the measures to use
18 languages.

On July 3, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the language policy law.

In July 2011, the Odesa city council allowed 78 schools and 120
pre-school institutions to use Ukrainian and Russian as tuition
languages.

http://un.ua/eng/article/405402.html

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