WRITTEN QUESTION E-0920/01 by Luciano Caveri (ELDR) to the Commission. Reply to Parliamentary Question to the Commission No E-3400/00 on whether or not French is an official language in Valle d'Aosta.
Date: 2001-03-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: France, Valle d'Aosta, bilingualism, official language

C 261 E/218

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.9.2001

(2001/C 261 E/247)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0920/01

by Luciano Caveri (ELDR) to the Commission

(28 March 2001)

Subject: Reply to Parliamentary Question to the Commission No E-3400/00 on whether or not French is

an official language in Valle d(cid:146)Aosta

With regard to the reply to the above Parliamentary Question on whether or not French is an official
language in Valle d(cid:146)Aosta, I would like to point out two facts:

(cid:129) bilingualism in Valle d(cid:146)Aosta is founded on a constitutional law which is set out in the Special Statute

of Autonomy of 1948;

(cid:129) the Italian Constitutional Court ruled,

in judgment No 156 of 11 December 1969, that the first
paragraph of Article 38 of the Statute granted equal status to the French and Italian languages on the
basis of the established fact of full bilingualism in the region, and that as a result the equal use of both
languages is guaranteed under the constitution, ruling out the description of one or other language as
the (cid:145)official(cid:146) one in Valle d(cid:146)Aosta (in contrast to the situation in the multilingual province of Bolzano,
where, under Article 84 of the Statute, Italian is considered the official language).

This implies that for Valle d(cid:146)Aosta French is an official language. Does the Commission not therefore think
that it should reconsider the position expressed in its previous reply?

Answer given by Ms Reding on behalf of the Commission

(7 May 2001)

The Commission thanks the Honourable Member for the legal information about the status of French in
Valle d(cid:146)Aosta and the bilingual status of this Italian region.

As already explained in the answer to question E-3400/00 from the Honourable Member (1), the (cid:145)Hello
Europe(cid:146) CD-ROM is designed to give an initial presentation of the Member States that make up the Union.

The presentations of each Member State contain a brief message in the official language(s) of the Member
State. The languages were chosen on the basis of their status of official language at Member State level. For
example, in Finland, Swedish and Finnish are the two official languages of the Republic, and the CD-ROM
includes an oral presentation in these two languages. In Spain, while the languages of the Autonomous
Communities are also official languages, Spanish is the official language of the Member State, and the oral
presentation is conducted only in Spanish, while mentioning the official languages of the Autonomous
Communities.

In the case of Italy, the official language of the Italian Republic is Italian, as stated in Article 1 of Law
No 482 of 15 December 1999 on the historical linguistic minorities. The presentation of the CD-ROM is
therefore in Italian and only mentions this language at national level. However, the linguistic diversity of
Italy is described in the section of the CD-ROM dealing with the population, which includes the following
description: (cid:145)The official language is Italian, but German is spoken in South Tyrol, French in Valle d(cid:146)Aosta,
Slovene in Trieste and Gorizia, and LadinS in several valleys of South Tyrol. In all, 12 languages are
spoken in Italy(cid:146).

(1) OJ C 151 E, 22.5.2001, p. 157.

(2001/C 261 E/248)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0926/01

by Jonas Sj(cid:246)stedt (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Responsibility for the appointment of R. Berthelot

(28 March 2001)

Ex-Commissioner Cresson(cid:146)s personal friend, R. Berthelot, was appointed in March 1997 as an expert on
aids matters. Mr Berthelot did not have the necessary qualifications and the Commission has now called
for repayment of the fees Mr Berthelot was paid.