"evropuli qartia saqarTvelo "European Charter for Regional or ...

tion of National Minorities". Is it possible that confirmation of such significant
information was not sent to the Council of Europe within the
period of three years? 228
As for the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages":
On the basis of general provisions indicated in the ECRML and
"by taking into account the democratic principles, a member state of the
Council of Europe is entitled to define itself the criteria that will serve
to assign the relevant status of every single language spread over the territory
of a given country (articles 30-36 of the Charter’s Explanatory
Report).
According to 2008 data, twenty-three out of forty-eight member
states of the Council of Europe have ratified the "European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages" (Armenia, Germany, Finland, Roma-
229 230
nia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, UK, Poland ) ; ten states have only
signed the document (Azerbaijan, France, Italy, Russia); as for the other
fifteen states, they have not yet formulated their position (Georgia, Turkey,
Greece, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, Latvia, Portugal…) 231
.
Despite a one-year obligation assumed in 1999, the Georgian
government failed to ratify the "European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages" during ten years; consequently, Georgia received
several reprimands from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
228 Naturally, negligence by the officials of the Council of Europe is not ruled out: in the
materials of the Council of Europe, namely, documents on ratification of ECRML by
Austria and Armenia, we have traced other technical errors that were corrected after the
letter by T. Putkaradze had been sent to the ECRML secretariat (namely, to Ms. Sonia
Parayre); cf. information published on January 9, 2009 (Status as of: 9/1/2009) and that
of uploaded since January 13:
(http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?NT=148&CM=&DF=
&CL=ENG&VL=1.
229 In 2005 Polish Seim adopted the Law on National and Ethnic Minorities and a Regional
Language; according to the very law, in fact, the regional language is regarded to
be another state language in the region where the national or ethnic minority resides.
http://www.usefoundation.org/view/479.
230 For instance, in Germany the following languages are regarded to be such: Danish
(in Schleswig-Holstein), Upper Sorbian (in the Free State of Saxony), Lower Sorbian
(in Brandenburg), North Frisian (in Schleswig-Holstein), Saterland Frisian (in Lower
Saxony), Romani (across Germany) and Low German (in Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein).
231 http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/Commun/ChercheSig.asp?NT=148&CM=&DF=&CL=ENG
198