Language rights in public institutions

László Ladányi, prefect of Harghita County opened the conference, he was followed by MEP Csaba Sógor, who greeted the audience and presented foreign examples for the usage of minority languages. He pointed out the example of South-Tirol and Finland, where legislation guarantees the usage of minority languages in public administration if spoken by more then 8% of the population.

- Multilingualism is a European value and the prerequisite of democracy. We cannot speak of “europeanism” where minority language rights are not being upheld, therefore Romania also must internalize the European values and must take steps towards multilingualism. This is the only way it can become a true member state – explained Csaba Sógor, also stating that it is well known that democracy, and thus the interpreters cost a lot, but a war would cause even greater expenses.

The MEP speech was followed by Csaba Borboly, President of the Harghita County Council’s remarks and a series of presentations. István Horváth, President of the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities was the first to speak and he pointed out, that spoken Hungarian is being used exceptionally in the Szekler region, but usage of written Hungarian has some deficiencies. Erika Mária Tódor, lecturer at the Sapientia University spoke of functional bilingualism, emphasizing that it can only be achieved through adequate educational reform.

The final presentation of the event was delivered by Emese Emőke Batizán, representative of the Civic Engagement Movement, who informed the audience about the results of a recent survey in this field. The survey consisted of 66 formal requests written in Hungarian being submitted to public institutions in Mures County. Only 19 of these were replied to in Hungarian, while 11 of these were formally denied to be answered, stating that it had not been written in the official language of the state.