The Swedish Assembly of Finland, Folktinget, has officially reported the Finance Ministry to the Parliament’s Justice ombudsman. The reason for this is that the Finance Ministry requested the official opinion only in Finnish of 11 municipalities who have Swedish as their majority language. The opinions were requested regarding the proposal to close the Magistrate districts of Raseborg and Åboland.
Despite enquiries by the municipalities concerned, the ministry failed to send the documents in Swedish.
Folktinget considers that the Finance Ministry has broken the Language Act. According to the law, state authorities should communicate to a municipality using the municipality’s majority language.
The chair of Folktinget, Ulla-Maj Wideroos said “The Finance Ministry has broken the Language Act and furthermore done so in a matter that has great significance for the Swedish-speaking population. We can not accept such infringements of the law. It can not be accepted that authorities ignore the Language Act.”
The Finance Ministry’s documents were requesting official opinions of municipalities on the ministry’s proposal to close Raseborg magistrate and Åboland magistrate, both of which have Swedish as their majority language. According to the ministry’s proposal, the magistrate activities of these areas would be incorporated into respectively Esbo (Espoo) magistrate and Åbo (Turku) city and district magistrates – both of which would have Finnish as the majority language.
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Friday 23.5.08 at 15:01
Rasmus
Good that someone finally complains about these things. They happen all the time and increasingly. Recently, I remember it was revealed if you get an automatic camera speeding fine, the rules of how to appeal only came in Finnish (although the bill itself is bilingual!!). So, does that give us the right not to pay as we haven’t had our judicial rights respected?
The mainland Swedish speaking munipalities should do the same as Ålands government. If it comes in Finnish, send it back to Helsinki unread with a polite note thanking them for getting in touch but to send it again in Swedish.