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Text preluat de pe saitul: www.warsawwoice.pl |
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LANGUAGE LAW
A group of Sejm deputies has submitted a bill on the protection of Polish language which would result in fines of up to zl.10,000 for overusing foreign words in, for example, shop windows.
The law would regulate the legal status of Polish as the official language, treating it as "national culture property." The bill, prepared at the Ministry of Culture and Art dominated by the previous government coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish Peasants' Party, emphasizes the duty to protect the Polish language. It seeks to make Polish obligatory in names of goods and services in commercial activities. Inscriptions on "publicly accessible objects" would have to be in Polish as well.
The new law would first apply to state and self-government institutions and other organizations carrying out public activities in Poland. They would be obliged to exclusively use the Polish language. Polish would also be required in contracts with foreign partners if the contracts' realization is to take place in Poland. At present, agreements are often in English. For the foreign partners' convenience, such contracts may have annexes with an official translation.
If the bill is passed, Polish will also be obligatory in economic activities. All businesses operating in Poland will have to use it in names of goods and services, advertising, user's manuals, information on the products' and services' characteristics during the term of warranty, as well as on labels, bills, invoices and receipts.
Polish language will also be required in teaching, exams and master's theses in public and private schools, including universities. The same applies to inscriptions on public utility buildings and in means of public transportation. These texts, if necessary, may be accompanied by foreign-language versions.
The bill allows for exceptions for: institutions widely known under foreign-language names, scientific and artistic work, cultural work aimed at developing ethnic minorities' and groups' traditions, philology studies and foreign language teaching, when the teachers are foreigners, universities and classes with foreign language lecturing, scientific and specialist publications and publications for foreigners who don't speak Polish.
In justified cases, at the request of the interested party or institution and after consultation with the relevant governmental institution, the Ministry of Culture and Art would be able to allow for an exception to the law.
The bill calls for establishment of a Polish Language Council which would make decisions on spelling and punctuation, on its own or at the request of the ministers of culture and art, education or internal affairs and administration, or the president of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). The minister of culture and art will have the right to veto such a decision, and the council will need a two-thirds majority to override it. The Council will include 30 members with five-year terms, nominated by the PAN president in agreement with the culture and art and education ministers.
Lawbreakers will be fined, and the minister of culture and art will be able to independently impose fines on businesses.
The new law, according to its authors, doesn't infringe on laws regulating the state's relations with churches and religious denominations, or the rights of ethnic minorities and groups. However, the regulations may still be altered, as a special Sejm sub-committee is considering the bill. It has ordered a series of evaluations by Polish language specialists and sociologists. The bill's final shape may also be influenced by three Sejm committees, of culture, competition and consumer protection, and the ethnic minorities committee.
Monika Wysocka
