Linguistic Discrimination Against Hungarians Living Abroad in the EU Cover Image

A külhoni magyarok nyelvi diszkriminációja az Unióban
Linguistic Discrimination Against Hungarians Living Abroad in the EU

Judgment of the European General Court with Respect to a Recruitment Test Organized in Connection with the Romanian Accession

Author(s): Petra Lea Láncos
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Political Sciences, Public Law, Ethnic Minorities Studies, EU-Legislation
Published by: Nemzetpolitikai Kutatóintézet
Keywords: EU language regime; minority language; Hungarians in Romania;

Summary/Abstract: The present article gives a critical account of the European General Court's judgment in the B.A. vs. Commission case. B.A., a Hungarian and Romanian dual citizen sought the annulment of the decision of European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) which denied her the right to sit for the competition in her native language, Hungarian and refused to admit her to the oral test after she failed the test in Romanian. B.A. claimed that she had been afforded unequal treatment, since the fact that she was precluded from writing the test in Hungarian “placed her, on an objective view, at a disadvantage compared with her fellow citizens who had received their school and university education in Romanian.” The case and the arguments put forward by the parties provide a clear insight into the ambiguities surrounding the EU language regime as well as the difficulties faced by minorities whose mother tongue is both an official language of the EU and a minority language with no official recognition in the Member State in which it is spoken.

  • Issue Year: 1/2016
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 107-113
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Hungarian