LL-L "Language politics" 2009.05.09 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 09 May 2009 - Volume 02
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2009.05.04 (02) [EN-NL]

*> From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
> Subject: **LL_L Events / Language politics
> Next Friday afternoon there wll be a debate at Leuven University about the
(in?)consistency with international law of the protective linguistic
practices used by the Flemish government and by some Flemish municipalities.
*

I went to that debate Friday afternoon.
The proceedings are published:
- *Taaleisen juridisch getoetst*, editors A. Alen & S. Sottiaux,
2009, Kluwer, ISBN 978-90-4652-685-8, xiii + 190 pp.
I don't know the sales price, since I got it as attendant.

The debate was held at Leuven University, Faculty of Law.
In the list of participants I see quite some judges and personel of the
Constitutional Court, of the High Administrative Court (Raad van State), of
other Courts, quite some members of the Parliament (with a strong presence
of Vlaamse Belang, the Flemish right nationalistic party), and obviously
many students in constitutional law,...
The day was presided by Alen, judge at the constitutional court, for as far
as it concerned presentations by professors in constitutional law of several
universities. The debate with politicians was moderated by Guy Tegenbos of
the newspaper De Standaard.

For the latter part, I think Flemish politicians (in this case Erik Van
Rompuy) risk to loose sympathy from the public because of their emotional
approach of things. From the French side Christian Van Eycken was very cool,
clear, reasonable, constructive. Somehow many Flemish are too suspicious to
even start talking with the French. However there are some serious issues.
E.g. in the first year of the primary school of the Flemish municipality
Zaventem, a suburb of Brussels, only 10 percent of the kids speak the school
language, Dutch.

One of the key issues is the refusing by the Flemish for signing the
European treaty for protection of minorities. The treaty deals with
individual rights.Belgium has a system of territorial protection, and one
fears that that system will be overruled when the treaty applies. One is
less afraid from advices or ruling by international courts as by application
of the treaty by Belgian courts.

It is difficult to explain to non-Belgians. I try:
- with a national law one creates a reservate for Indians (a* territory*),
with specific protection and rules
- with an international treaty one accepts that *individual rights* prevail
and that individuals can trespass territorial law.
Add to this a very hostile political context.

The book though has a broader scope, and for as far as one can read Dutch,
it contains a large lot of issues and cases related to constitutional law
for protection of minorities.

Regards,
Roger

•

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