English
A summary of the news for January 2012.
On 23-25 January, the Committee of Experts of the European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages, paid an on-the-spot-visit to the Netherlands. The delegation, consisting of Alexander Bröstl (Slovakia), Vera Klopcic (Slovenia), and Marieke Sanders (Netherlands), had meetings with representatives of the Limburgian language in Maastricht and the Lower Saxon language group in Assen; both which languages are recognised in part II of the Charter. The Lower-Saxon language community aims at recognition in part III.The meeting on the Frisian language in Ljouwert/Leeuwarden was divided in four sessions: public authorities & judiciary, education, culture & media, social & economic affairs.
The session on education covered all phases of the teaching and learning process. The main message of all representatives was that although the Netherlands has signed a reasonable number of 48 articles from part III of the Charter for Frisian, the implementation can be improved. Although the Netherlands were among the first countries to sign (1992) and to ratify the Charter (1996), the implementation of legislation and adequate measures is not taken seriously by the Dutch government. The third national report (2003-2007) was published with a considerable delay and the fourth (2008-2011) was very short (64 pages). The intended devolvement of legislative power to the provincial administration seems nice, but in practice it is hard to strengthen the position and the continuity of teaching and learning of Frisian from pre-school provisions through primary and secondary education. Alex Riemersma asked the Committee to further investigate and develop common standards with regard to the level of “substantial part” and “integral part” of education respectively. Similarly it is hard to implement the signed articles for teacher training and university level due to national legislation and financial constraints. The need was expressed that the Netherlands should sign (and implement) the relevant articles on vocational training.
On behalf of Mercator Research Centre Cor van der Meer highlighted the function of Mercator as “bringing Fryslân to Europe and Europe to Fryslân” – by means of several networks (Mercator Network, Network of Schools, Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity, Poliglotti4.eu as part of the Civil Society Platform, Language Rich Europe). He also stressed the need for structural basic funding for the Mercator Research Centre to sustain its existence and activities.
