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constituencies inhabited by “a number of speakers of regional or minority languages
that justifies the following measures, the Parties, as long as they feel it is reasonably
possible, commit themselves to...”. But from the five aforementioned possibilities, the
Spanish Declaration chooses the highest degree of exigency in assuming the
obligation of “making sure that these administrative authorities make use of regional
and minority languages” (i), while rejecting less imperative alternatives such as those
referring to the fact that the authorities will use the regional or minority language simply
in contact with the public which addresses them in these languages (ii); at the same
time, it also obliges itself to provide forms and administrative texts in regional or
minority languages or in bilingual versions (b) and to allow administrative authorities to
write the documents in a regional or minority language (c).
Paragraph 2 is accepted in its entirety, the obligations
contained in its seven sections, respectively referred to allow and/or to foster the use
of regional or minority languages in the regional and local administration, being
assumed; the same happens with the possibility that the citizens present requests in
these languages, the publication of official texts of the regional and local communities
in their language and the use by the regional and local authorities of their language in
the debates of their assemblies “without excluding, however, the use of the official
language(s) of the state”. Finally, the possibility of using toponyms in the regional or
minority language together with their use in the state official languages is also
assumed.
As regards Paragraph 3 of this Article 10 concerning public
services, the Spanish Declaration accepts two of the three alternatives, despite the fact
that the text presents them as being mutually exclusive. In fact, we understand that
option (a) is wider and subsumes options (b) and (c), by establishing the obligation of
ensuring that regional or minority languages are used when offering public services. In
order to make possible the obligations assumed according to paragraphs 1, 2 and 3,
Paragraph 4 proposes three obligations which are accepted by Spain. They imply
assuming the required translations and interpretations (a), hiring enough staff (b) and
accepting, as much as possible, the petitions of transfer to the region where the
regional or minority language of the civil servant who knows it (c) is spoken. All the
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