EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 88/435

(2004/C 88 E/0441)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2726/03

by Nelly Maes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(10 September 2003)

Subject: Russian minority's schools in Latvia

Languages are part of the richness of Europe. Several international charters recognise the right of citizens to maintain and develop their own languages.

In Latvia, the significant Russian-speaking community is struggling against the Government's intention to eliminate minority educational systems. In its resolution on Latvia's progress in the accession process (2002) the European Parliament called for a study into possibilities of retaining secondary education in minority languages.

Does the Commission consider this attitude compatible with the European values of fundamental rights and cultural and linguistic diversity? Has the Commission asked for any information from the Latvian authorities on this issue?

Does the Commission consider that a People's Europe should promote the protection and development of all languages? Would the Commission consider supporting projects from organisations acting in support of the Russian language and other minority languages in Latvia?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(25 September 2003)

Since the 1997 opinion on Latvia's application for membership, the Commission has repeatedly confirmed that Latvia continues to comply with the political criteria for membership, namely respect for democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities. This position has been shared by international human rights organisations and was endorsed by Member States in the enlargement context.

The Commission attaches great importance to the integration of minorities into the Latvian society, in full compliance with European standards of national minority rights, including the planned transition to bilingual education in minority schools and is closely following these developments. The Commission is not aware of any Latvian intentions to eliminate minority education systems. On the contrary, Latvia, as a multicultural country, supports education in eight minority languages, including in Russian. Moreover, the education reform of 1998, introducing gradually bilingual education, is seen as an essential element of developing an integrated society in Latvia.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities, who is closely engaged in the issue of education reform of the minority schools, has confirmed this and has made it clear that, while there is a lawful right to promote the state language, there is also the right for minorities to preserve their native tongue and cultural identity.

The Commission believes that the ability of all young individuals of Latvia to speak both their national and native language is to their long-term social and economic advantage and will further assist the integration process.

Since its 2002 Regular Report (1), the Commission has taken every opportunity to stress that sufficient flexibility should be provided in the transition phase in minority schools in order to ensure equal educational opportunities for, as well as a close dialogue with, minority groups.

Supported by the OSCE, Latvia has taken a number of steps to ease the transition process in 2004 regarding the gradual shift in secondary schools from 10th grade onwards to a curriculum in which 60 % of subjects are being taught in Latvian or bilingually, and 40 % in the minority language, and in amending the respective legislation.

Special attention is being paid to maintaining a systematic dialogue with all stakeholders (minority schools, teachers, students, parents, etc.), including specific support to them to improve the bilingual skills in order to smooth the transition phase. The Latvian Minister for Society Integration, a former head of a human rights organisation for minorities, who supervises the work of the Society Integration Foundation and its assistance programmes, is closely involved in this process.

Understandably, there are practical difficulties, reflected by concerns of the people involved in the demanding transition process of educational reform for ethnic minorities in Latvia. With this in mind, the Latvian authorities have confirmed their intention to apply individual timetables for those schools facing particular difficulties in the transition process.

The process of society integration continues to be closely followed and has been supported by the Commission since 1996 through Phare funding, including more recently through assistance to organisations acting in favour notably of the Russian speaking minorities (since 2000).

Finally, the Commission has a general policy of promoting regional and minority languages and their use in both current and future Member States. As a result it has recently published the Action Plan on ‘Promoting language learning and linguistic diversity’. Language diversity is one of the components of the overall objective of cultural diversity (2), enshrined in the EC Treaty (Article 151).

(1) COM(2002) 700 final.

(2) COM(2003) 449 final.