On 26 April, President of Latvia Egils Levits sent a letter to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the strengthening of Latvian as the single official language of Latvia.
Cabinet of Ministers will soon review the National Language Policy Guidelines 2021-2027 and President Levits has decided to remind the government of the specific constitutional value of the Latvian language stipulated in Satversme (Constitution) and the need to give language a thorough regard when developing policy planning documents, legal acts and practices. Letter of the President to the government also outlines various national language policy priority areas.
President Levits urges the cabinet members to stop labour market discrimination based on language by implementing appropriate policy measures, which prevent employers from requesting to know Russian when it is not appropriate. ‘I expect the government to suggest specific measures and actions that would stop labour market players from insisting on unrealistic language expectations, and thus preventing many from fulfilling their dreams and building career in Latvia. Such demands go against our desire to build a cohesive society with Latvian as the only official language,’ says the President in his letter to the Cabinet of Ministers.
President of Latvia calls for National Language Policy with special focus on English as one of the main foreign language offered to most students, while differentiated approach would also ensure that English language is not dominating the Latvian language. It is also important to make sure Latvian schools offer children a choice between one of the official languages of the European Union as their third language.
President’s letter urges cabinet members to find ways to adequately support quality content in Latvian and quality of Latvian language in public domain, i.e., reduce the value added tax on books written in Latvian and mass media writing and broadcasting in Latvian. It also suggests that government should have a grant scheme supporting hiring of proof-readers and editors by mass media. ‘Latvian language grows stronger and becomes more sustainable when it is widely used in public domain and in making of quality content about various everyday issues important for the public. National language policy should make concrete steps towards greater accessibility of quality content in the official language,’ stresses Egils Levits.
President’s message also highlights the need to take care of the sustainability of the Latvian language in the digital domain. He urges cabinet members to ensure that digital language divide is reduced by balanced policy, which supports greater use of Latvian in artificial intelligence applications. ‘Survival and longevity of the Latvian language depends on our ability to offer Latvian speaking internet users opportunities that are equally as diverse as those available to people speaking one of the big languages. We have excellent examples that have already been tested and industry professionals who have achieved truly tremendous things that make us proud,’ President points out.
President also calls on the Cabinet of Ministers to strengthen the positions of Latvian language in higher education and science, and thus contribute to greater potential and prestige of Latvian as the language of science.
President praises the government for allocating a special place in draft National Language Policy Guidelines to development of Latgalian as a subset of Latvian language and preservation of Liv language. President is delighted to see the outcomes of discussion on Latvian historical lands bill initiated by him having positive impact on Latgalian and Liv language popularity and use in public and media domains, as well as preservation of different Latvian language accents and dialects spoken across various historical regions.
In conclusion, President also reminds that he has urged the parliament to designate the 15 October as the Official Language Day. Tradition of celebrating this day should cover all groups of society and create favourable preconditions for strengthening the single official language positions of Latvian, its sustainability and further development. President also recommends to provide for annual report of the Cabinet of Ministers on the official language to be prepared and discussed in the parliament. ‘Latvian language is a treasured value for Latvian nation, people and the state. That is why current national language policy deserves to be under wide public focus and parliamentary debate about its future is vital, because Saeima is the epicentre of our political life as a parliamentary democracy,’ says President in his letter.
In his letter, Egils Levits gives praise to everyday efforts of public institutions responsible for delivery of the national language policy, everything they have done to contribute to the national language policy and input in drafting National Language Guideline 2021- 2027.