Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman on Saturday met with Styria’s Minister for International Affairs, Education and Human Resources, Werner Armon. This Austrian state will introduce Croatian as a first language subject in the school year 2024-25, it was officially announced at the meeting.
The treatment of the Croatian language in the Austrian school system is one of the more significant bilateral issues, and this decision is based on the position that Croatian is an official EU language, which makes the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Language subject no longer appropriate. It is the result of persistent joint efforts and interdepartmental cooperation between the Croatian Government and Austria’s competent bodies and authorities.
It is also a significant step forward towards fully respecting the sovereignty of the Croatian language in Austria, given the extant scientifically unfounded recommendation of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research from 1996 not to separate the teaching of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian on ethnic basis.
Grlić Radman said that Croats in Austria are well-integrated and the two friendly countries have long historical ties, adding that the Croatian language was entered into statistics as an independent language more than 100 years ago. “This is a major achievement and a result of our years-long efforts to offer Croatian children an important foundation for a quality learning of the mother tongue. I thank Styria for its engagement in this area. This is a big step that paves the way for a satisfactory status of Croatian education and the Croatian language across Austria,” the minister said.
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