May 2013
Community Update Brittany
The perspective of the ratification by France of the European Charter of the languages goes
away.
President F.Hollande decided not to include the possibility of ratifying the Charter within the
framework of the future revision of the Constitution. During the presidential election
campaign, this measure had nevertheless been a part of his commitments and recently even,
he had repeated that he will ratify the charta. JJ Urvoas, deputy of the district of Quimper
and president of the Law commission of the National Assembly, showed his irritation after
that decision because the position of the government leans on a notice of the Council of
State wich is kept secret.
The bilingual family book questioned by the Ministry of French Justice.
Minister of Justice, Mrs Christiane Taubira has during an answer in deputy of the Finistère
Mrs Chantal Guittet, expressed her refusal to authorize " the update of the French-Breton
bilingual family books " in the name of the " principle asserted in the French law of
uniqueness of the official language. "
For that purpose, she bases herself in particular on a text of 2 Thermidor An II, that is the text
taken during the period of the Terror during the French Revolution and another Prairial An
XI's text, taken by Consul Napoleon, whose objective was to Frenchify the newly conquered
territories (especially north of Italy and Belgium).
At present, numerous municipalities use these notebooks, basing themselves on the
interpretation which prevailed up to here, namely: the presence of the French language does
not exclude the possibility of using an other language as well.
More than 1000 learners on the platform EduBreizh
Skolanet has set up in 2011 the platform EduBreizh to propose a solution of e-learning for
people eager to learn Breton. This initiative that was launched thanks to the support of the
Regional council of Brittany, meets an important success. More than 1000 people registered
on the platform for sessions of chat or to reach modules of autotraining intended for
beginners who can validate on-line the level A1 of the European portfolio of languages.
A new Extension for Breton sites. The ICANN agrees to create a dot bzh : .bzh for Brittany
The Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) decided on May 10th to
agree to create a new Internet extension dot bzh for Bretons as there is already a dot Cat for
Catalans. The www.bzh association and the Regional council of Brittany congratulate
themselves on this positive outcome, which rewards a long-term action having mobilized
numerous actors since 2004. 20.000 persons had also signed a petition this way.
This first websites with .bzh should be active in the beginning of 2014.
New law on Education
The law of " Refoundation of the school " is still in the course of examination; Senators
decided to modify a very controversial amendment which questioned the Deixonne law, a
very timid law approved in 1951; the Deixonne law is the only one which allows teachers to
teach regional languages on their extra-time if they wish. The new amendment adopted by
the Parliament required previous formal approval from every family before a teacher can
teach the language if he decides to do so (which barely happen really). This new amendment
was thus modified by the Senate avoiding an incredible step backward of more than 70
years. Unfortunately the rejection of the new amendment doesn’t constitute on itself the
significant improvement so badly needed for the languages spoken in the French State.
However, the compulsory character of the teaching of Corsican appears for the first time in
school law, this could allow to open gradually the door to other languages.
Committee for internal linguistic diversity
The Public Office of the Breton language was received briefly by the Committee for internal
linguistic diversity on May 15th. This Committee was set up after decision was made by the
French government not to modify the Constitution, rending so impossible the ratification of
the European Charter for Minority Languages in France. The High Committee created by the
Ministry of Arts has received the mission to audition referent bodies to make proposals and
advances within the actual constitutional status. However the head of this committee is a
member of the State council which acts against the ratification of the Charta, leaving few
hopes for real progress.
Meanwhile activists continue to demonstrate, in Quimper some language activists occupied
the town hall asking to be receive with the mayor of the town which is also a special advisor
of the French President and was responsible for selecting the articles of the Charta signed by
France over 10 years ago. In Sarzeau more language activists gathered in front of the Prime
minister summer house with dismounted road signs asking for Breton road signs on State
roads and for the ratification of the Charta