Name in English: tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and maybe later …

Adjustment of the legal names of the Polish spelling had to be presented by the end of April. Now the Government promise to present its proposal for “any time soon”, but there should be regulation in this betrays.

— I can’t yet reveal any details until the work the expert group said on Monday, may 6, justice minister Juozas Bernatonis, whose resort has to work out the final legal form of regulation of the Polish spelling of names.

More of his minister, but not too much, said Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius. In a radio interview on Tuesday Prime Minister revealed only that the resolution of the legal spelling of names will not be contrary to the Constitution, because the needs of the Polish minority will not be changed.

– No law shall be enacted contrary to the Constitution. I believe that none of the politicians do not do this, so the Minister of Justice is empowered to examine all possible proposals – said the prime minister and added that there won’t be any amendment of the Constitution.

In Lithuania, there is a firm belief that the spelling in Lithuanian passports of Polish names in the Polish language is unconstitutional, as, moreover, the Constitutional Court also commented and it twice–in 1999 and 2009. Meanwhile, supporters of the law argue that the names non-Lithuanian spelling solutions names are not a part of the Lithuanian language, the entry of the Lithuanian language as defending constitutional State, should not affect the spelling of names. It also demanded that politicians Lithuanians, also with the State Commission. Its President, Irene Smetonienė, has repeatedly said that the Polish spelling of names is not a problem, but political, and therefore its solution lies in the hands of politicians and policy decisions.

— Apparently because this lady is no longer the President of the Commission, because her opinion wasn’t accepted by the politicians — notes in an interview with “Courier” and member of Parliament Vice-President AWPL Jarosław Keller. Acknowledges that the Polish MEPs are not familiar with the details of the work of the Working Group under the chairmanship of the Minister of Bernatonisa.

— The proposal of this group was to be presented to  May 1, but missed it. Now they promise until the end of May. Well, we will wait, says Vice-President of Parliament. Stresses, however, that any legal and technical solution implemented the spelling of Polish names should meet the expectations of the Poles, that the names on passports should be written in the mother tongue. Keller also ruled out the possibility of adopting so-called. a compromise variant of Latvia, when the name in the language of a national minority is saved for subsequent pages of your passport and does not have any legal weight.

— In Polish and on the first page of the Passport — selects the Vice President. Recalls also that it’s not just about meeting the reality of the Polish minorities, but also to meet  the Government of a particular item, Butkevičiusa approved by the Diet the Government programme. Laurie Keller points out that in clearly declares a solution to the problem of spelling the names of the representatives of national minorities and the validation of double naming of streets and towns in an inhabited by national minorities.

However, it seems that the statement of program performance in line with expectations of the Polish minority government can be with special resistance. I do not think it is a handful of vociferous nationalists organizing a monthly anti-Polish communities in the streets of Vilnius in April as both Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, strongly rejected the allegations of the extreme right that the government is rampant AWPL demands. However, there proved to be a government announcement that previously announced premiere party colleague, Vice-President of the Parliament Gediminas Kirkilas. According to them, the legal solution spelling of Polish names have hit the Sejm in April, and the new law on national minorities should have been prepared and submitted to the Parliament in this session yet.

Today it is known that earlier announcement have worked not only because they led by 1 July the bill will appear, and the solution on the spelling of Polish names will be announced until the end of may at the earliest. And it is  not know still what kind of law, it is going to be and what’s the solution.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/05/07/nazwiska-po-polsku-jutro-pojutrze-a-moze-pozniej/

Tłumaczenie by Katarzyna Dąbrowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Katarzyna Dąbrowska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.