One-minute speeches on matters of political importance (debate)
Yana Toom (Renew). – Mr President, ‘United in Diversity’ is probably the most famous European slogan. Diversity has many dimensions – one of them is linguistic diversity – of which we also pretend to take care.
But we’re systematically overlooking the fact that some Member States are making efforts to assimilate their minorities. During the accession period of my native Estonia and neighbouring Latvia, we received a list of recommendations concerning the Russian-speaking population. The main focus was on better integration of these people. However, 15 years later, the ruling coalition in Latvia is preparing for a full transition to the Latvian language in education, starting next year – but with 30% of the population being Russian speakers – despite the protests, and despite the fact that forced assimilation is clearly forbidden by international law.
We’re not in the accession process anymore, so we can violate the rights of national minorities and nothing will happen. Europe has more important issues to solve. But colleagues, violation of human rights is violation of human rights, even if it takes place in the European Union. Before we go and strongly condemn somebody, let’s look in the mirror.