Austria's national communities urge parties to preserve their languages

In the resolution adopted at the meeting in Vienna on Tuesday, parliamentary parties were called to immediately and consistently include urgent measures for the preservation of national community languages into their agenda and thus observe constitutional objectives, the Community of Carinthian Slovenians (SKS) said in a press release.

The measures proposed include urgent improvements in the field of education, the financial provision for bilingual education in the languages of the national communities in private schools, and appropriate legislative arrangements at both the federal and state levels.

Moreover urged were an amendment to the law on national communities, a reassessment of the funding for national communities, and the implementation of all decisions adopted by the individual advisory councils.

On his election, Sadovnik announced that he would insist on the implementation of the adopted resolution "to prevent the extinction of the endangered languages of the indigenous national communities". He further assured that he would firmly stay the chosen course, ensuring that the joint efforts achieve greater public recognition.

Last December, Sadovnik became president of the Advisory Council for the Slovenian National Community at the office of the Austrian chancellor, thereby also becoming a member of the Advisory Council of Indigenous National Communities. At the top post, he now succeeded Martin Ivancsics from the Croatian national community, who had stepped down for health reasons.

The joint advisory council is consultative body at the office of the Austrian chancellor and comprises all officially recognised national communities in Austria - the Slovenian, the Croatian, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, and Romani communities.