Waldemar Tomaszewski on the old Law on National Minorities: Three times lucky

The leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania Waldemar Tomaszewski expressed his hope that, because of the third time of the attempts, the old Law on National Minorities will be given back its graces.

“For the third time we agreed that the project of Jaroslaw Narkiewicz was going to be considered and adopted by the Parliament. Three times lucky. I believe that the law is going to be adopted and acquire validity, as before 2010” – said Tomaszewski after the meeting of the Political Council.

Jaroslaw Narkiewicz registered the project already in 2012 and, under it, until the new law will have been accepted, the old one will be applying. The law provides, inter alia, that in areas densely populated by the national minorities the minority languages can be used as far as state offices are concerned. It allows also for the bilingual signboards.

The new law on national minorities, on which the working group under the leadership of the Deputy Minister of Culture Edward Trusewicz has been working, has still not been approved by the members of the Parliament.

Recently, after the meeting with the representatives of national minorities, the prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius ordered to set up a new working group with the government office being a coordinator of it.

Returning to the old law on national minorities due to the conflict with the Constitution was criticized by the president Dalia Grybauskaitė and the Commission of the Lithuanian Language.

Source: http://pl.delfi.lt/aktualia/litwa/waldemar-tomaszewski-o-starej-ustawie-o-mniejszosciach-narodowych-do-trzech-razy-sztuka.d?id=64326290

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