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Strasbourg, 24 October 2012 ECRML (2012) 6 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN THE NETHERLANDS 4th monitoring cycle A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the Charter B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by the Netherlands The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages provides for a control mechanism to evaluate how the Charter is applied in a State Party with a view to, where necessary, making recommendations for improving its language legislation, policy and practices. The central element of this procedure is the Committee of Experts, set up under Article 17 of the Charter. Its principal purpose is to report to the Committee of Ministers on its evaluation of compliance by a Party with its undertakings, to examine the real situation of regional or minority languages in the State and, where appropriate, to encourage the Party to gradually reach a higher level of commitment. To facilitate this task, the Committee of Ministers adopted, in accordance with Article 15, paragraph1, an outline for periodical reports that a Party is required to submit to the Secretary General. The report should be made public by the State. This outline requires the State to give an account of the concrete application of the Charter, the general policy for the languages protected under Part II and, in more precise terms, all measures that have been taken in application of the provisions chosen for each language protected under Part III of the Charter. The Committee of Experts’ first task is therefore to examine the information contained in the periodical report for all the relevant regional or minority languages on the territory of the State concerned. The Committee of Experts’ role is to evaluate the existing legal acts, regulations and real practice applied in each State for its regional or minority languages. It has established its working methods accordingly. The Committee of Experts gathers information from the respective authorities and from independent sources within the State, so as to attempt to obtain a fair and just overview of the real language situation. After a preliminary examination of an initial periodical report, the Committee of Experts submits, if necessary, a number of questions to each Party to obtain supplementary information from the authorities on matters it considers insufficiently developed in the report itself. This written procedure is usually followed up by an on- the-spot visit by a delegation of the Committee of Experts to the State in question. During this visit the delegation meets bodies and associations whose work is closely related to the use of the relevant languages, and consults the authorities on matters that have been brought to its attention. This information-gathering process is designed to enable the Committee of Experts to evaluate more effectively the application of the Charter in the State concerned. Having concluded this process, the Committee of Experts adopts its own report. This report is submitted to the Committee of Ministers, together with suggestions for recommendations that the latter may decide to address to the State Party. 2 3 CONTENTS A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in the Netherlands ......... 4 Chapter 1 – Background information ............................................................................................................. 4 1.1 Introductory remarks .............................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts .................................................................................................. 4 1.3. Presentation of the regional or minority language situation: up-date ..................................................... 5 1.4 General issues arising from the evaluation of the periodical report ....................................................... 5 Chapter 2 – Conclusions of the Committee of Experts on how the Dutch authorities reacted to the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers ......................................................................................... 6 Chapter 3 - The Committee of Experts’ evaluation of Parts II and III of the Charter .................................. 7 3.1. The Committee of Experts’ evaluation in respect of Part II of the Charter ............................................ 7 3.2. The Committee of Experts’ evaluation of the application of Part III of the Charter: Frisian ................. 16 Chapter 4 Findings of the Committee of Experts in the fourth monitoring round .............................. 24 Appendix I: Instrument of Acceptance .............................................................................................................. 26 Appendix II: Comments by the Dutch authorities .............................................................................................. 28 B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by the Netherlands ..................................................................................................................... 29 A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in the Netherlands adopted by the Committee of Experts on 22 March 2012 and presented to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 16 of the Charter Chapter 1 – Background information 1.1 Introductory remarks 1. The Kingdom of the Netherlands signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereafter referred to as “the Charter”) on 5 November 1992 and accepted it on 2 May 1996. On 19 March 1997, a supplementary declaration was submitted in a Note Verbale to the Council of Europe, by the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands (attached in Appendix I). The Charter entered into force for the Netherlands on 1 March 1998. The Dutch authorities published the text of the Charter in the Dutch Treaty Series in 1993, No. 1 (in English and French) and No. 199 (in the Dutch language). 2. Article 15.1 of the Charter requires States Parties to submit three-yearly reports in a form prescribed by the Committee of Ministers. The fourth periodical report, which had been due on 4 September 2010, was submitted by the Dutch authorities with a considerable delay on 15 September 2011. This report has been made public. 3. Besides the delayed submission of the periodical report, the Committee of Experts notes that the fourth periodical report contains only very limited information about the application of the Charter to Low Saxon. In addition, it does not provide answers to several questions raised in the questionnaire1 submitted to the Dutch authorities by the Secretariat on 19 October 2009. The Committee of Experts recalls that the Committee of Ministers’ outline for three-yearly periodical reports2 requires States Parties inter alia to provide “information regarding measures which have been taken in response to the recommendations adopted by the Committee of Ministers, and to the questions and box recommendations made by the Committee of Experts” in the previous evaluation report. 1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts 4. The fourth evaluation report is based on the information the Committee of Experts obtained through the fourth periodical report of the Netherlands and through meetings held with representatives of the speakers of the regional or minority languages and the Dutch authorities during the on-the-spot visit, which took place from 23 to 25 January 2012. The Committee of Experts received several comments from bodies and associations legally established in the Netherlands, submitted pursuant to Article 16.2 of the Charter. 5. The present report focuses on the measures taken by the Dutch authorities to respond to the recommendations of the Committee of Experts and the Committee of Ministers in the third monitoring cycle. This report also highlights new issues, which the Committee of Experts considers to be of particular importance in the context of this fourth monitoring cycle. 6. The Committee of Experts has in the present report presented detailed observations and recommendations which the Dutch authorities are encouraged to take into account when developing their policies on the regional or minority languages. On this basis, the Committee of Experts has also proposed recommendations to the Committee of Ministers to be addressed to the Government of the Netherlands, as provided in Article 16.4 of the Charter. The present report reflects the policies, legislation and practice prevailing at the time of the on-the-spot visit (January 2012). Any changes after that time will be taken into account in the next report of the Committee of Experts concerning the Netherlands. 7. The present report was adopted by the Committee of Experts on 22 March 2012. 1 MIN-LANG (2009) 15 2 MIN-LANG (2009) 8, http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/StatesParties/Outline3yearly_en.pdf 4 5 1.3. Presentation of the regional or minority language situation: up-date 8. During the third monitoring cycle, the Committee of Experts was informed that there are six local varieties of Limburgish in the Province of Limburg: Kleverlands, Michkwartier, Central Limburgish, Eastern Limburgish, varieties on a continuum with Ripuarian, and Ripuarian. In the fourth periodical report and in the replies to the questionnaire submitted