After almost ten years since the adoption, the Law on Use of Languages in Kosovo is not fully implemented. The real reasons for it are finally discovered, was said at the presentation of the research “Monitoring and evaluation of language rights in Kosovo”, which was conducted by the European Centre for Minority Issues in Kosovo, in cooperation with the Office of the Commissioner for languages.
The key issues of non-compliance with the Law on the use of languages in Kosovo are limited human, financial and technical resources, short deadlines for translation of draft laws, regulations and administrative instructions, as well as the difficulties in hiring qualified language professionals. “We must increase the number of language professionals. After that should be established clear mechanisms in all institutions, municipal and central. It is crucial, and it must be done” said Laja Pau Romani, project manager at the European Centre for Minority Issues.
Serbian journalists’ associations are protesting against violations of the law on the use of language for years. Also, recent research of journalist Jelena Petkovic from the Frankfurt based Vesti showed that in many laws, as well as in the Kosovo Constitution, there are thousands of spelling, grammatical and factual errors. For example, in the Serbian version of the Constitution of Kosovo, there are nearly a thousand of such errors.
Commissioner for the languages Slavisa Mladenovic says that the institutions are responsible for the violation of the Law on Language. He pointed out that it was necessary to conduct extensive research to discover the causes of these problems and find the best way to solve them.
According to the Constitution and the Law on the use of languages that has been in force since 2006, the official languages in Kosovo are Albanian and Serbian.
