Moldovan official journal roundup for 22 June

Chisinau, 21 June /MOLDPRES/- The Constitutional Court's decision to review the constitutionality of certain provisions on the use of the spoken languages in Moldova and Article 4(2) of Constitutional Jurisdiction Code will be published in the Official Journal of Moldova on 22 June.

Liberal MPs said that the inclusion of the Russian language in the requirements of the five contested laws would violate the right to equality of all citizens before the law, just as the Russian ethnicity would account for only 4% of the population of the Republic of Moldova, and so the mandatory use of the Russian language sets a differentiated treatment for the other minority languages.

Following the examination of the notification, the Court held that the official status of the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova does not exclude translating documents adopted or issued by some central authorities of Moldova in other languages, and the texts contested from this point of view do not provide for the publication of normative acts, the educational process or the display of the names of the institutions and of public places in Russian, but primarily in Romanian. The Russian language is a subsequent option.

The court said that as long as there is a priority condition for publishing normative acts, conducting the education process, communicating official information in Romanian, Article 13 of the Constitution does not become an incident.

Regarding the incidence of Article 16 of the Constitution, which guarantees the equality of citizens before the law and public authorities, the Court emphasized the importance of respect by the Republic of Moldova of the provisions of international conventions on the protection of minorities. The issue on alleged discrimination of minorities from languages other than Russian does not have to lead to the abolition of Russian language from the disputed legal provisions.

(Reporter A. Zara, editor M. Jantovan)