Strasbourg, 15 April 2015 ECRML (2015) 2 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN CROATIA 5th monitoring cycle A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the Charter (adopted on 24 September 2014) B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by Croatia (adopted on 15 April 2015) 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 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, paragraph 1, an outline for periodical reports tha t a Party is required to submit to the Secretary General. 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 periodical report shall be made public by the State in accordance with Article 15, paragraph 2. 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 sou rces within the State, in order to obtain a fair and just overview of the real language situation. After a preliminary examination of a 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 evaluation 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 CONTENTS A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in Croatia ................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 1 Background information ................................................................................... 4 1.1 The ratification of the Charter by Croatia ............................................................................. 4 1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts ................................................................................ 4 1.3 Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in Croatia: update ................... 4 1.4 Territorial scope of application of Part III ............................................................................. 7 Chapter 2 Conclusions of the Committee of Experts on how the Croatian authorities have followed up the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers ....... 9 Chapter 3 The Committee of Experts’ evaluation in respect of Parts II and III of the Charter .............................................................................................................. 11 3.1 Evaluation in respect of Part II of the Charter .................................................................... 11 3.2 Evaluation in respect of Part III of the Charter ................................................................... 19 3.2.1 Czech.................................................................................................................. 21 3.2.2 Hungarian ........................................................................................................... 28 3.2.3 Italian .................................................................................................................. 34 3.2.4 Ruthenian ........................................................................................................... 41 3.2.5 Serbian ............................................................................................................... 49 3.2.6 Slovak ................................................................................................................. 56 3.2.7 Ukrainian ............................................................................................................ 64 Chapter 4 Findings of the Committee of Experts in the fifth monitoring cycle ............ 71 Appendix I: Instrument of Ratification of the Republic of Croatia ........................................... 73 Appendix II: Comments from the Croatian government .......................................................... 74 B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by Croatia .................................................. 80 3 A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in Croatia adopted by the Committee of Experts on 24 September 2014 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 The ratification of the Charter by Croatia 1. The Republic of Croatia signed and ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereafter referred to as “the Charter”) and deposited its instrument of ratification on 5 November 1997. The Charter entered into force in Croatia on 1 March 1998. The instrument of ratification is set out in Appendix I of this report. 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 Croatian authorities presented their fifth periodical report to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 17 January 2014. 1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts 3. This fifth evaluation report is based on the information obtained by the Committee of Experts from the fifth periodical report by Croatia as well as through meetings held with representatives of the minority language speakers in Croatia and with the Croatian authorities during the on-the-spot visit, which took place on 11-13 June 2014. In addition, the Committee of Experts has received several statements pursuant to Article 16.2 of the Charter from associations legally established in Croatia and has referred to them in the report. 4. In the present fifth evaluation report, the Committee of Experts will focus on the provisions and issues under both Part II and Part III which were singled out in the fourth evaluation report as raising particular problems. It will evaluate, in particular, how the Croatian authorities have followed up the observations and recommendations made by the Committee of Experts and the recommendations made by the Committee of Ministers. The Committee of Experts will also look at new issues detected during the fifth monitoring round. 5. The present report contains detailed observations and recommendations which the Croatian authorities are urged to take into account when developing, implementing and reviewing their policy on regional or minority languages. On this basis, the Committee of Experts has also established proposals for recommendations to be addressed to Croatia by the Committee of Ministers, as provided in Article 16.4 of the Charter. 6. The fifth periodical report submitted by Croatia covers the period from 2009-2012. This evaluation report is based on the political and legal situation prevailing at the time of the Committee of Experts’ on-the- spot visit to Croatia in June 2014. It was adopted by the Committee of Experts on 24 September 2014. 1.3 Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in Croatia: update 1.3.1 Withdrawal of Croatia’s reservation to Article 7.5 7. When ratifying the Charter in 1997, Croatia made a reservation to Article 7.5. This is the only reservation of this kind that a State Party has ever made to the Charter. The Croatian authorities subsequently specified that they considered the Roma languages1, German and Slovenian as non-territorial 1 For the concept of “Roma languages”, see paragraph 12 below 4 languages and thus covered by the reservation.2 The reservation resulted in the exclusion of traditionally used languages from protection under the Charter