Bulgaria's Nationalist VMRO party is filing a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) over the English language use on the country's IDs.
VMRO insists that texts in the ID Act mandating the use of Bulgarian and English on ID papers are anti-constitutional and demands their amendment.
Bulgaria is the only European Union Member State where the inscriptions on the new, biometric IDs are bilingual, VMRO points out, adding the EU has no such requirement, while Bulgarian ID cards have complete doubling of the information in the two languages.
Bulgaria is also the only country whose international passports' cover bears bilingual inscriptions, which VMRO claims are necessary on the passports' pages, but not on the cover. Bilingual covers are needed only in countries that have more than one official language and for Bulgaria are simply a sign of low self-esteem and colonial mentality, VMRO insists.
In addition, VMRO points out that the current ID cards contain numerous spelling, grammar and content errors in English.
Author: Richie, 24 Nov 2009 16:35:33
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
My passport (non-Bulgarian EU, biometric) is trilingual: my native language, English and French. The Bulgarian passport should include at least Turkish, being a main minority language.
Author: Bill, 24 Nov 2009 16:38:52
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
American passports have only English on the cover, but the pages inside are in English and French.
The argument presented here is specious in that one good reason for uosing English on a Bulgarian passport is that officials in western Europe aren't likely to be able to read cyrillic and/or Bulgarian.
The text would have to be printed in one of the recognized international languages they're familiar with.
Author: Chushki, 24 Nov 2009 16:48:51
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
Baba Nellie's got a Turkish passport.
Author: DrFaust, 24 Nov 2009 17:28:35
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
"Baba Nellie's got a Turkish passport."
Since when do cockroaches travel with passports?
Author: DrFaust, 24 Nov 2009 18:04:12
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
EU regulation 2252/2004 says nothing about the design or use of languages on the cover page of EU passports. It is therefore up to each individual member country to decide about this question.
Instead of devoting its political activities to such nonsense the VMRO should instead maybe think about getting rid of their own name which will be always remembered as one of the most disgusting terrorist organizations in Europe, especially in the 1920s and 30s.
Author: Bill, 24 Nov 2009 18:15:30
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
DrFaust:
Are you famliar with the American usage of "making mountains out of molehills"?
It really isn't an issue worth bothering about. So long as the contents of a passport are readable by border and other officials, the rest doesn't matter.
Author: DrFaust, 24 Nov 2009 18:24:56
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
Bill,
the problem with such populists like the VMRO and others - actually almost all political groups in Bulgaria are populist - is that instead of developing concepts for, let's say a better education or health system, they occupy people's attention with such no-brainer topics. But when someone has intellectually nothing to offer, it is so much easier to slam Turks or other minorities, to fantasize about the millions of Bulgarians living in the US, or to make a big deal about the word 'Passport' written in latin script on a document.
Author: Bill, 24 Nov 2009 18:30:57
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
DrFaust:
From my viewpint here, what with Bulgaria being newly admitted to the EU, it should be an imperative matter that Bulgarian travel documents be readable by EU officials. I suppose the battle will rage forever about whether English or French is "the" international language, but no matter which one is used, western officials will understand them.
For the moment, however, what with the internet using English as the major language, and the UN headquartered in New York, English seems to have the upper hand.
Author: DrFaust, 24 Nov 2009 19:15:30
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
Bill,
my understanding is that the argument is only about the title page of the passport. Inside it contains a section in the 23 official languages of the EU.
Author: Bill, 24 Nov 2009 19:56:46
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
DrFaust:
I wouldn't know. I've never seen one.
Author: WickedWitch, 24 Nov 2009 21:35:34
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
Turkish is not an official language.
English is the default for Latin alphabet readers.
End of story.
Author: NellieotAmerica, 24 Nov 2009 21:42:24
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
DrFungus
"But when someone has intellectually nothing to offer,"
You have finally achieved some self-understanding.
Author: NellieotAmerica, 24 Nov 2009 21:48:52
Nationalist VMRO Party Takes Bulgaria IDs to Court
richie
" The Bulgarian passport should include at least Turkish, being a main minority language."
Perish the thought!!!!!!! Turkish is not a EU language and it certainly is not an official language in Bulgaria.
You know, there is a nice Turkish forum somewhere in cyberspace where you should piss off to.
