The very concept of “national minority” has an uncertain meaning in Bulgaria and even after ratification of the framework Convention a dispute continues on whether it is at all applicable to the Bulgarian situation. The Constitution and the existing legislation does not use the term. It was however used by some politicians, argued during the debate preceding ratification that the provisions of the framework Convention do not have an object to protect in Bulgaria. Such was the position e.g. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 1997. Using a provision from the document of the 1991 CSCE meeting in Geneva of the experts on national minorities, the Ministry prepared a draft-declaration upon signature of the framework Convention stating that the “ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious differences in the composition of the population in the Republic of Bulgaria did not lead to the creation of national minorities.” Others believe that “national minority” should be used to mean “all ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities actually existing in Bulgaria”. A third group believes that “national minority” should be used to designate certain, but not all “minority groups” and used different criteria to exclude a number of them. A silent assumption of the entire debate was and continues to be that the provisions of the framework Convention, if at all, should be applied only to Bulgarian citizens. There also seems to be an agreement, although not explicitly stated, that the provisions of the framework Convention on “national minorities” will be applied to the Bulgarian citizens “whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian.” • legal: The Constitution of Bulgaria does not use the term “national minority”. Art. 36 (2) uses “citizens whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian” (“граждани, за които българският език не е майчин”); Art. 54 provides for the right of “everyone” to develop his/her own culture “in accordance with his/her ethnic belonging” (“в съответствие с етническата си принадлежност”). The terms used to designate groups of people of common religious belief in Art. 13 (4) are “religious institutions and communities” (“религиозни общности и институции”); Art. 6 (2) which guarantees the equality before the law and non-discrimination prohibits discrimination on the grounds of “race, nationality, ethnic self-identity, sex, origin, religion, education, opinion, political affiliation, personal or social status or property status” (“раса, народност, етническа принадлежност, пол, произход, религия, образование, убеждения, политическа принадлежност, лично и обществено положение или имуществено състояние”). The term “national minority” thus is not present also among those grounds for non-discrimination. When in November 1992 the Constitutional Court interpreted the provisions of Art. 6 it ruled with Decision No.14/1992 that there should be no other grounds for non-discrimination, but only those explicitly mentioned in the Constitution (See below under Article 4). There is no enumeration in the law of groups, which are recognized as national minorities. The terms used by the Constitution are, for the most part, reproduced in the legislation. The relevant legislative acts include: The Law on National Education – Art. 8 (2) provides for the right of students whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian “to study their mother tongue in the municipal schools” (“да изучават своя майчин език в общинските училища”). 2. The Radio and Television Act – Art. 12 (2) provides for the possibility of radio- and TV operators to air programs in languages other than Bulgarian when they are “for Bulgarian citizens whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian” (“за български граждани, за които българският език не е майчин”); Art. 49 (1) provides for the possibility of the Bulgarian National Radio and the Bulgarian National Television to air programs “for the Bulgarian citizens whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian” (“за българските граждани, за които българският език не е майчин”). 3. Ordinance No. 3 from 27 June 1997 for Determining the Number of Staff in the System of National Education - Art. 7 (1) provides that teaching staff is paid for electives, “including classes for learning the mother tongue” (“в т.ч. за изучаване на майчин език”). 4. Regulations for Applying the National Education Act - Art. 8 (3) provides that students whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian can “study their mother tongue in municipal schools” if there are enough students for one group (“да изучават майчиния си език в общинските училища”). Para. 4 defines mother tongue as the “language which the child uses to communicate with its family” (“езикът, на който детето общува в семейството си”). 1.
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