The sentence stating “the law is good, but its application is bad” has become so worn out that it seems that those who say it do not believe it anymore. The best example is the Law on the Use of Languages in Kosovo. Representatives of several relevant institutions and civil society, today on the International Mother Language Day, agreed that in Kosovo there is no will to respect what the law envisages, when the language is in question, Serbian media in Kosovo report.
The institutions that should first comply with the legislation are the biggest violators. Journalistic research has also shown that there were 4,000 mistakes in the Constitution of Kosovo. And citizens on the ground daily face cases of non-respect of the language in Kosovo, most often regarding one of the two official languages, the Serbian one.
The Commissioner for Languages at the Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo Slavisa Mladenovic says that it is absurd that the Law on the Use of Languages, as one of the most advanced in Europe, is badly translated.
“However, it may be even more important than the non-respect of the Law on the Use of Languages is a lack of genuine will. For the past five years, I did not see really serious efforts in the ministries and in municipalities to improve the budget and the staff.”
Chairman of the Council for Communities Gazmend Salijevic says that the Roma slowly are losing their mother tongue, and that this is a serious threat not only to the Roma community, but also to the Gorani community, and he believes that the problem also exists in the Turkish and Serbian communities. “The moment when we stop taking care of the language, we will cease to exist as peoples,” says Salijevic.
