Articles in Eurolang (fwd)

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Dear Sir/ Madam,

We include a brief summary of the articles published in Eurolang.

Sehr geehrte Leserinnen und Leser,

hiermit senden wir Ihnen kurze Zusammenfassungen der in Eurolang
veroeffentlichten Artikel.

COMMISSION RECOMMENDS LEGISLATIVE POWERS FOR WELSH ASSEMBLY
Abergele 4/6/2004 by Huw Morgan

Wales may have its own parliament with some legislative powers and the
possibility of tax raising powers. At the moment the National Assembly of
Wales, established five years ago, does not have these powers, and any laws
that it wants has to be passed by the Westminster Government in London.
These legislative powers could be used to further the Welsh language.



SWEDISH MAY BE MADE A VOLUNTARY SUBJECT IN THE FINNISH MATRICULATION EXAM
Helsinki 4/6/2004 by Annika Juurriko

According to one of the main Finnish newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat, the
Minister of Education of Finland, Mrs Tuula Haatainen, with support of the
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, is suggesting that Swedish should be a
voluntary subject in the Finnish Matriculation exam, taken at the end of
secondary school. This has led to intensive debate among Swedish-speaking
Finns. In their view, the revision undermines the position of Swedish as it
will no longer be obligatory to take the Swedish exam as part of
Matriculation examination. In addition, Swedish speakers believe that it
will become more difficult to justify learning Swedish in general. The
language debate is also becoming a political one as according to some the
Swedish national party, ‘Ruotsalainen kansanpuolue’(RKP), should leave its
position in government over the issue.

MIXED MESSAGES FOR IRISH IN NEW CENSUS
Brussel - Bruxelles 4/5/2004 by Davyth A. Hicks

Irish census results published last week reveal an increase in the number of
Irish speakers from 1,430,205 in 1996 to 1,570,894 in 2002. In percentage
terms, however, there was a slight decline from 43.5 per cent in 1996 to
42.8 per cent in 2002. Meanwhile in the Gaeltacht areas the number of
speakers has declined with fewer speakers using the language.

BASQUE MEP CALLS FOR SINGLE LANGUAGE POLICY FOR THE WHOLE BASQUE COUNTRY
Bruxelles / Brussel 4/2/2004 by Davyth Hicks

A recent sociolinguistic survey carried out by the Basque Government, which
includes data on the linguistic situation of the Basque language on both
sides of the Spanish-French border, has shown that the percentage of
speakers in the Basque-speaking area in France (Iparralde) has seen a sharp
decrease in the last decade: from 40.2% in 1991 to 36.5% in 2001. To reverse
this decline Koldo Gorostiaga MEP for the Northern Basque Country told
Eurolang that a single language policy for the whole Basque Country (Euskal
Herria) backed by a legal framework was needed urgently.




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Simone Klinge
European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages
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