Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-03-Speech-2-482"
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"en.20090203.24.2-482"2
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"Thank you, Mr President, I must remind you that in my small country, Latvia, there are 2.3 million inhabitants, of whom approximately 1.6 million are of Latvian ethnic origin. Nonetheless, in Latvia, primary education is dispensed by the state and local government in eight minority languages, some of which, such as Romany and Estonian, are very small. When speaking about Russian-speaking non-citizens, one cannot use the concept of a ‘traditional minority’. In the sense of Western European countries, they could be said to be newcomers or immigrants who, at the time of the Soviet occupation, arrived in Latvia and enjoyed many privileges. Firstly, they had the privilege of not learning the language of the land and people they had come to, but of speaking only Russian. My country has enacted one of the most generous naturalisation laws in Europe, precisely in order to meet those people halfway. Over the ten-year period that this law has been in force, approximately 50% of non-citizens have acquired citizenship rights. When a survey was conducted recently, however, in late 2008, among people who had not become naturalised, 74% did not wish to obtain Latvian citizenship. Secondly, only one third of non-citizens has made use of the right to register as Latvian citizens children born after Latvia regained its independence – just one third. Why that is, I do not know. Mrs Ždanoka, who was elected from Latvia and represents Latvian citizens of Russian origin, makes no secret of the fact that after obtaining voting rights for non-citizens, the next step would be to call for Russian to be given the status of a second state or official language. What does that mean? Firstly, it means the retention of privileged status for people who came to Latvia from Russia, and secondly, it would be the signing of a [death] sentence for the Latvian language and culture since, behind the Russian speakers, there are 140 million more in Russia, with increasing nationalistic ambitions. For the Latvian language, it is not possible, as small as we are, as few in number as we are. Finally, we joined the European Union not in order to retain the divided society created by the Soviet occupation, but in order to overcome it and to retain our own identity. Thank you."@en1
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