The goal of the main provisions of the preliminary draft law on the protection of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script, presented by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to Serb member of BiH Presidency Milorad Dodik, is to nurture, preserve and promote the Cyrillic script as a stronghold of Serbian national identity, Belgrade’s Večernje Novosti report.

According to the draft law that the paper had access to, all state and local authorities in Serbia and Republic of Srpska, state owned enterprises, schools and faculties, as well as companies with majority public capital and associations operating at the national and international level will be obliged to use the Serbian language and Cyrillic script in their work in the future.

The public broadcasting institutions RTS and Radio Television Vojvodina will also have that obligation.

The mandatory use of Serbian and Cyrillic, as the main script, concerns also legal transactions and printing of names, headquarters, activities, names of goods and services, instructions for use information on the properties of goods and services, warranty conditions, offers, invoices, bills and certificates.

Cultural and other events financed or co-financed from public funds will have to have a logo written in Cyrillic.

In addition to expanding the range of bodies and institutions obliged to use Cyrillic, the draft law also provides for a package of stimulating incentives for the private sector – primarily tax and other administrative facilities for those who opt to use Cyrillic in performing their activity, including in the electronic media and when publishing printed media.

The Ministry of Culture will be in charge of supervising the application of the law on the protection of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script.

Penalties for violating this act are also envisaged, ranging from 15,000 /127 euro/ up to half a million dinars /4,255 euros/.

The draft law also envisages the establishment of a Serbian language council, whose task will be to monitor and analyze the situation in the field of use of Serbian in public life and to implement measures to protect and preserve Cyrillic as the main script.

The Council will also issue recommendations, proposals and expert opinions for improvement of that situation, and it will be formed at the proposal of the ministry in charge of cultural affairs, by a special act of the Government specifying its tasks and composition.

Yesterday in Belgrade, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, presented to the Serb member of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, the preliminary draft law on the protection of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script, which should be adopted by the assemblies of Serbia and Republic of Srpska on National Unity Day, 15 September.

Source and photo: SRNA