EU Office: We hope for appointment of Language Commissioner and establishment of Translation Unit within Kosovo Prime Minister’s Office

Source: vocaleurope.eu

The European Union Office in Pristina said, on the occasion of the European Day of Languages, that it was an opportunity to highlight the importance of multilingualism across the continent, particularly in Kosovo, adding that it hoped a Language Commissioner would soon be appointed and a Translation and Harmonization Unit established within the Office of the Kosovo Prime Minister.

The European Union noted that, as a community with 24 official languages, it was helping Kosovo fully implement the Law on the Use of Languages, including through reforms financially supported under the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.

“We hope to see the Language Commissioner appointed soon and the Translation and Harmonization Unit established within the Office of the Prime Minister,” the EU Office in Kosovo said.

The European Union, as Kosovo’s strongest partner, said it would continue to support the implementation of reforms on its path toward EU integration.

However, although the Law on the Use of Languages in Kosovo stipulates that “the Albanian language and the Serbian language and their alphabets are official languages in Kosovo” and have equal status within institutions, practice has shown that these provisions are not respected.

Journalists working for Serbian-language media outlets in Kosovo have frequently pointed out that the equal status of the Serbian language has been violated in numerous ways for decades, including through the denial of interpretation in institutions and obstacles to using their mother tongue in official communication.

In March this year, the Journalists’ Association of Serbia and its branch in Kosovo protested after three United Nations agencies in Kosovo decided to send press releases and information to Serbian-language media exclusively in Albanian.

The Serbian language, and specifically the Cyrillic script, has also been targeted on road signs and signs bearing the names of places and institutions, with the Kosovo authorities replacing them with signs in the Latin script.