WRITTEN QUESTION E-2519/01 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. The battle in Chroscicy to maintain the use of Sorbian in education and administration for the Sorbian population which has traditionally lived in Upper Lusatia, Saxony.
Date: 2001-09-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Saxony, ethnic discrimination, ethnic group, language teaching, linguistic group, rights of minorities

20.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 147 E/25

(2002/C 147 E/023)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2519/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 September 2001)

Subject: The battle in Chroscicy to maintain the use of Sorbian in education and administration for the

Sorbian population which has traditionally lived in Upper Lusatia, Saxony

Is the Commission aware that in the village of Chroscicy (Crostwitz), situated between the towns of
1.
Budyšin (Bautzen), Kamjenc (Kamenz) and Wojerecy (Hoyerswerda),
in the Dresden district of Saxony,
90 % of the population have always spoken Sorbian, a Slavonic language, but that, just as happened earlier
in the northern part of the Sorbian language area around Chósebuz (Cottbus)
the
provision of secondary education in Sorbian is declining or even disappearing completely?

in Brandenburg,

2.
Is the Commission also aware that this state of affairs has, since 8 August 2001, led not only to daily
demonstrations featuring the blue, white and red Sorbian flag, the singing of the Sorbian national anthem
and the wearing of traditional costumes, but also to civil disobedience, with pupils being taken away from
official schools so that they can be taught by retired Sorbian-speaking teachers?

3. What view does the Commission take of the fact that, instead of efforts being made to safeguard and
maintain the rights of a traditional linguistic minority in the face of falling numbers of school-age children,
pupils are being forced to continue their education at German-speaking schools, that school absenteeism is
punished and that the government of Saxony takes no account of the demands made by Domovina, the
Sorbian political and cultural umbrella organisation?

In the case of the 60 000 Sorbians, what can the Commission do to help avoid polarisation in their
4.
relations with the German-speaking population group, which dominates the fields of education and
administration, and what can it do to eliminate sources of ethnic conflicts within EU Member States
generally?

(2002/C 147 E/024)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2520/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 September 2001)

Subject: The exemplary value of allowing the use of local languages in education and administration as a

means of preventing the emergence of nationalistic conflicts.

1.
Is the Commission aware that two thirds of Europe’s current 48 countries, including six of today’s EU
Member States: Greece, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Finland and Ireland, as well as Norway, Albania, Poland,
Lithuania, Iceland, Malta, Slovenia, Ukraine, Moldova and the Czech Republic, came into being only after
the Congress of Vienna attempted to fix the borders of the countries of Europe once and for all in 1815,
the decisive factors being confirmation of the outcome of wars, royal marriages and treaties on the use of
mountain ranges or rivers as national borders, rather than the linguistic and cultural boundaries perceived
by local inhabitants?

2.
Is it also aware that, in most cases, the social discontent that led to the establishment of new states
and the amalgamation of existing states was caused by the fact that in a great many areas it was not the
local language but a ‘foreign’ language that was used by princes, officials and the military for administrative
purposes and in education, resulting in a division into first-class and second-class citizens, and that this
state of affairs in many cases brought forward nationalist movements and subsequently also led to violent
conflicts in some cases, before administrative changes were made with the creation of federal states and the
adjustment of borders?

3.
Does it agree that the unrestricted use in education and administration of indigenous local or
regional majority languages is the best means of preventing the emergence of nationalistic conflicts, that
we could learn much to foster the peaceful and mutually respectful coexistence of neighbouring peoples in
Europe from the changes that have been made in recent decades following linguistic conflicts in Flanders,