Strasbourg, 4 December 2002 ECRML (2002) 1 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN GERMANY 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 Germany 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 improvements in its legislation, policy and practices. For this purpose a Committee of Experts is established in accordance with Article 17 of the Charter. Its principal task 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 the regional or minority languages in the State and, where appropriate, to encourage the Party to gradually reach a higher level of commitment. The Committee of Ministers considers and adopts any recommendation it deems necessary in relation to a given Party, based on suggestions for recommendations from the Committee of Experts. To facilitate this task, the Committee of Ministers adopted, in accordance with Article 15.1, an outline for the initial periodical report that a Party is required to submit to the Secretary General. The report shall be made public by the State in accordance with Article 15.2. The outline requires the State to give an account of the concrete application of the Charter, the general policy for the languages protected under its 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 Expert’s first task is therefore to examine the information contained in the initial periodical report for all the relevant regional or minority languages on the territory of the State concerned. The Committee shall 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 gathers information from the respective authorities and from independent sources within the State, so as to attempt to obtain a just and fair overview of the real language situation. After a preliminary examination of an initial periodical report, the Committee submits, if necessary, a number of questions to each Party to procure 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 to the respective State. 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 to better evaluate 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 could decide to address to one or more Parties as may be required. 2 CONTENTS A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in Germany ………………………………. 5 Chapter 1: Background information ………………… 7 Chapter 2: The Committee’s evaluation in respect of Part II and Part III of the Charter ……….. Chapter 3: Findings of the Committee ………………. 15 113 Appendix I: Instrument of ratification ………………. Appendix II: Comments of the German authorities 117 125 B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by Germany ……………………………………………………. 131 3 Strasbourg, 5 July 2002 MIN-LANG (2002) 4 final European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter presented to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 16 of the Charter GERMANY CONTENTS Chapter 1. Background information .................................................................................................. 7 1.1. The Charter’s ratification by the Federal Republic of Germany ............................................7 1.2. Work of the Committee of Experts ...................................................................................7 1.3. Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in Germany................................7 1.4. General legal framework................................................................................................ 14 1.5. Particular issues arising in the evaluation of the application of the Charter in Germany........ 14 Chapter 2. The Committee’s evaluation in respect of Part II and Part III of the Charter......................... 16 2.1 The evaluation in respect of Part II of the Charter ............................................................. 16 2.2. Part III commitments regarding Low German in areas where Low German is covered by Part II.......................................................................................................................... 21 2.3 The evaluation in respect of Part III of the Charter ............................................................ 34 2.3.1 Danish in the Danish Language area in Schleswig-Holstein....................................... 34 2.3.2. North Frisian in the North Frisian language area in Schleswig-Holstein....................... 43 2.3.3. Sater Frisian in the Sater Frisian language area in Lower Saxony.............................. 52 2.3.4. Low German in the Länder of Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.................................................................... 59 a. In the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen ................................................................................. 61 b. In the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg ......................................................................... 67 c. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ................................................................................... 74 d. In Lower Saxony ............................................................................................................... 81 e. In Schleswig-Holstein........................................................................................................ 88 2.3.5 Upper Sorbian ...................................................................................................... 97 2.3.6. Lower Sorbian in the Lower Sorbian language area in Brandenburg.......................... 106 Chapter 3 Findings of the Committee ...........................................................................................116 APPENDIX I: INSTRUMENT OF RATIFICATION .............................................................................119 APPENDIX II : COMMENTS BY THE GERMAN AUTHORITIES ...................................................... 132 6 Chapter 1. Background information 1.1. The Charter’s ratification by the Federal Republic of Germany 1. The Federal Republic of Germany signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereafter referred to as the Charter) on 5 November 1992. By the Federal Act (to implement the Charter) of 9 July 1998, the German Bundestag, with the consent of the Federal Council (Chamber of the Länder), approved the Charter. That Act was promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette on 16 July 1998, and the instrument of ratification was deposited with the Council of Europe on 16 September 1998. The Charter entered into force in Germany on 1 January 1999. Under the Federal Act ratifying the Charter, the latter ranks, in Germany, as a federal law, which takes precedence over subordinate law, including Land law, and as a matter of principle (primacy of international law), is to be applied as the more specific law overriding other federal laws. 2. In accordance with Article 15.1, the initial periodical report on the application of the Charter in Germany was due on 1 January 2000. It was presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 20 November 2000. The German version was published in October 2000 by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is the department responsible for the drafting of the State Report. The Report was printed and also included in the Ministry’s Internet site. Anybody interested in the document can order it - and extensive use is being made of this offer. At the annual Implementation Conference on the Charter, the Länder and the umbrella organizations of the linguistic groups were provided detailed information on the Report and were - and still are - offered the opportunity to order as many copies of the Report as they like for their staff, members and affiliates. 3. The instrument of ratification of the Federal Republic of Germany is set out in Appendix I to this report. This instrument specifies the languages covered by Part III and the paragraphs and sub-paragraphs applicable to each one of them in the respective territories. 1.2. Work of the Committee of Experts 4. After the Committee of Experts had made its preliminary examination of the report, a questionnaire was drawn up and addressed to the German authorities. The Committee organised its “on-the-spot visit” to Germany in October