Ombudswoman proposes increasing fines for violating language law
Kyiv • UNN
Olena Ivanovska appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with a proposal to increase administrative fines for violating the language law. She believes that the current amounts of penalties do not provide a preventive effect and do not stimulate the elimination of offenses.
Olena Ivanovska, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with a proposal to initiate an increase in administrative fines for violations of the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" by amending the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. She announced this on Facebook, writes UNN.
"The current amounts of administrative penalties for violating the requirements of the Law do not provide an adequate preventive effect and do not stimulate offenders to eliminate them. In a number of cases, paying a fine is less burdensome than bringing activities into compliance with the requirements of the legislation," emphasized the Commissioner.
According to her, in recent years, the number of citizens' appeals regarding violations of language legislation has been growing, particularly in the areas of services, advertising, Internet resources, and public information.
The ombudswoman is convinced that the low level of responsibility creates a sense of impunity among offenders – people have stopped perceiving the requirements of the law as mandatory.
Symbolic fines are not commensurate with the economic benefits that individual businesses receive by systematically ignoring the requirements of the law, and therefore do not motivate voluntary compliance with language norms.