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Ladinia
Also in the public administration Ladin has slowly made its way. If the Ladins of the Bolzano Province were given the chance to use administrative Ladin already after the proclamation of the decree of the Italian Head of State of June 15th 1988 (nr. 574), the Ladins of the Trento Province had to wait until 1993 before being able to take advantage of this concession (legislative decree nr. 592 of December 16th 1993). The Ladins living in the Belluno Province, however, had to wait until the passing of the skeleton law 482/99 before starting their activity in the administrative sector.
In Val Badia and in Val Gardena a level has been reached which determines that all documents emitted by the Town Halls and the public offices have to be written in the three languages. For the citizens this represents the possibility to communicate with the public administration in the own mother tongue. In Bolzano there is an own office which has the task to translate the communications which address the Ladin speaking citizens. In Val di Fassa the translations of administrative documents are coordinated by an office of the Ladin territory. The personnel of this office is also responsible for the relationships with the personnel of the Town Halls which is gradually being entrusted with the translation work. In Livinallongo and in Cortina d’Ampezzo especially the Ladin Cultural Institute “Cesa de Jan” is on disposal for Ladin translations. It also trains personnel to do the translation work (recently various courses of administrative Ladin have been held). In these two valleys, however, there is still no definitive regulation concerning the bilingual proclamation of administrative files. Great importance lies in the use of Ladin on street signs (and generally in toponomastics) and on public infrastructures: in the Bolzano Province Ladin was able to make its way so far as to be used even in cities such as Bolzano, Merano, Bressanone or Brunico (for example on signs for hospitals, the university, and provincial buildings etc.) In the other two provinces the situation is far away from this goal.
With the institution of a co-operative between the Ladin Municipalities in 2006, a big step towards the creation of an administrative and political link between the single administrations has been made. One of the aims of this co-operative is the safeguarding and fostering of the Ladin language. It is now expected that the cultural values of the Ladin minority can be better defended and thus get the space they need in all the valleys.
As far as the political representation in the provincial government is concerned, the statute contains norms which by law reserve one place in the respective provincial councils for the Ladin linguistic groups of the Bolzano and Trento Provinces. Unfortunately, the Ladins in Livinallongo and Cortina d’Ampezzo don’t have this right as they are administratively organised in the Belluno Province in the Veneto Region which does not have the status of a region with special statute.
The possibility to declare oneself part of the Ladin linguistic group in occasion of national census, which the Ladins in the Bolzano and Trento Provinces have, is very important. It allows to find regulations for the work places in the public sector (only in the Bolzano Province).
Since Ladin is used in the public administration in the Bolzano as well as in the Trento Province, a special commission was established in order to assess the language competence of the people. The citizens which belong to the Ladin population in the Trento and Bolzano Provinces have the possibility to use their own mother tongue in the oral and written communications with the public administrations and with those institutions that exclusively have functions which interest the Ladin populations. The offices and the administrations have to reply in Ladin whenever the question or the declaration is made in Ladin. The same is also true for the scholastic personnel: before getting a job for an indefinite period of time, every teacher has to take an exam to put his cultural and linguistic knowledge to the test. The assessment of the Ladin linguistic competence is a fundamental prerequisite of all actions which are taken to safeguard the survival of Ladin and its population.