Members’ Update – Folktinget, Finland29 May2013
General Update
Folktinget statement to the fifth periodical report of Finland on the implementation of the Charter
On 9 April 2013, the Swedish Assembly of Finland (Folktinget) gave its statement to the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languagesin Finland. As a statutory organisation promoting the rights of the Swedish-speaking population, Folktinget focuses only on the Swedish language in its statement. Finland is now preparing its fifth report on the subject to the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe. Folktinget has translated its statement into English (23 pages, dated 17 May 2013) and also sent it to the attention of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter. The English copy will be distributed to the members of the NPLD, for your information.
Third government report on the application of language legislation being prepared
The Ministry of Justice is in the process of finalising the Finnish government’s report on the application of the language legislation in Finland. It is the third report of the government, the last ones being published in 2006 and 2009. The government will give the report to Parliament for discussion on 13 June. Compared to the two previous reports, mainly focusing on the linguistic rights in Swedish and the Sámi languages, the new report also deals more comprehensively with other languages, such as the two sign languages of Finland, Romani, Russian and Jiddish. The developments of the Karelian language is reported on in the current government report for the first time.
The Strategy for the National Languages of Finland
was published on 20 December 2012 as a resolution by the Finnish Government.
The work on the strategy was started in late 2011 and was lead bya Steering committee chaired by the Prime Minister.
A cooperation network of representatives of ministries and other authorities has been formed in spring 2013 to further the coordination and cooperation between different parties playing a crucial part in implementing the Strategy. Folktinget has a permanent representative, Secretary General Markus Österlund, in this network.
The government has also appointed a Language Rights Councellor to coordinate the implementation of the Strategy. Ms. CorinnaTammenmaa will start her work in the middle of September 2013, and will be based in the Ministry for Justice.
The strategy is in practice a follow-up of the work of the Ahtisaari working group, initiated by the Swedish Assembly of Finland. In March 2011, the grouplaunched an Action plan for a Bilingual Finland in order to strengthen its two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. As a result of this initiative, several wordings in the currentGovernment Programmeof Finland are direct quotes from the Action plan and its recommendations, including the one on a long-term language strategy for Finland.
The contents of the new strategy can be found in its abstract:
“The Strategy for the National Languages of Finland is one of the flagship projects under Prime Minister Katainen’s Government Programme. It focuses on the national languages of Finland – Finnish and Swedish – and it is the first government language strategy. The legal background of the Strategy for the National Languages of Finland consists of the Constitution and the more specific language legislation.
In line with the Government Programme, the Strategy for the National Languages of Finland is divided into two parts: a long-term language strategy and concrete measures for the Government’s term of office 2011–2015.
The Strategy for the National Languages is a development project which aims to safeguard a future Finland with two viable national languages. The Government’s position is that the existing language legislation on Finnish and Swedish is for the most part up to date. However, there are shortcomings in the practical implementation of this legislation. The Strategy for the National Languages of Finland is based on the realisation that the current situation concerning the Finnish and Swedish languages is not satisfactory over the long term. The Strategy does not include proposals for reform of legislation.
The starting points of the Strategy for the National Languages of Finland are the basic linguistic rights of individuals and the benefits and strengths arising from a bilingual society. The responsibility for the implementation of the strategy is divided among a number of bodies, with the Ministry of Justice carrying the general responsibility for monitoring. The Appendix provides practical tools for different kinds of administrative situations in order to improve the application of language legislation.”
The Strategy thus contains both proposals for long-term measures, and more concrete measures for the term of the current government (2011-2015). In addition it offers 7 sets of practical tools designed to help the authorities and civil servants with the application of the language legislation. The Strategy also provides updated information about the current state of linguistic rights in Swedish and Finnish, and about the practical functioning of bilingualism in the country– a comprehensivesummary for anyone interested in this subject!
Please use the link to the English version of the Strategy (published on 4 February 2013):