Prace parlamentarne nad ustawą z dnia 6 stycznia 2005 r. o mniejszościach narodowych i etnicznych oraz o języku regionalnym

The work on the draft bill started at the beginning of 2002 by the project of the National and Ethnic Minority Committee of the Sejm. During the first reading the deputies of the Law and Justice and the Polish Families League made a proposal to reject the draft. After the rejection of this proposal, the further work was carried out mainly in the extraordinary subcommittee, which prepared a report in spring 2004.The final work on the Act took place in National and Ethnic Minority Committee. During the third reading in the Sejm, also other motions to reject the draft or to limit its scope were proposed. These proposals came from right-wing and Catholic-national parties. In the Act in comparison to the original project there were extended rules on the use of minority language as an auxiliary, as well as for the use of this language as additional for assigning the names to towns and villages. A new solution was to introduce the notion of a regional language and giving this status to the Kashubian language. Also a solid base for the contacts of the government with national and ethnic minorities was established.