Acceso usuarios
Oriol Badia Tobella
In response to a consultation formulated by the Supreme Court in Dublin, the Court of Justice of the European Communities pronounced, in November 1989, its first sentence concerning language matters took place in Ireland, stands as an important precedent because it encourages the diversity of languages in Europe and because its argumentative basis is of a social order and not strictly economic. In the article, the case that triggered the sentence and the legal context within which the consultation by the Supreme Court in Dublin was formulated are explained. The subject of the consultation implied the interpretation on the part of the Community Court of those regulations regarding freedom of movement from one country to another by workers within the European Economic Community —to require knowledge of Gaelic, the first official language in Ireland, in order to be eligible for a job, does that limit the right of workers to move freely, a right that enjoys a fundamental nature all over the EEC? The Community Court pronounced its sentence combining both the right of workers to move freely —specifying that the right to perform an occupation in any member State is conditioned by the same laws that regulate the hiring of local workers— and the right to linguistic protection, even though it did not mention its own regulations within the Community regarding minority languages. This sentence constitutes a hopeful precedent for those European territories with their own minority or regional official language as well as for the full efficiency of the incorporation of Spain in the European Community.
