Narva town council to use Russian in record management?

The Estonian Cabinet has charged the ministers of interior and education with examining the request of the Narva town council to use Russian language in record management together with Estonian. The town is predominantly populated by non-Estonians.

Mikhail Stalnukhin, Chairman of Narva's town council and deputy of the Estonian parliament said on Wednesday that the language problem can be resolved positively.

Deputies of the Narva town council suggest that the Cabinet should propose certain amendments to the effective legislation. They also recall that since October 31, 2002 the town council holds its sessions in the state language, therefore most inhabitants of the town cannot understand the gist and substantiation of the decisions taken by the town council.

Narva deputies say that thus they do not implement the principle of openness established by the law in the work of their self-governance body. In addition, the current practice does not allow legally elected deputies to express themselves in their mother tongue which is the tongue of the ethnic minority, and hampers realisation of state integration policy in the country.