The Italian National Community (INC) is an indigenous national minority living in the territory of Slovenian Istria. It enjoys special constitutional and legal protection, which is crucial for the strict implementation of bilingualism in the area, as Italian is also the official language of the area. The INC also has a representative in the Parliament and thus representation at the highest political level.
The actual situation of the use of Italian in administrative procedures in the four coastal municipalities of the bilingual area was analysed and compared based on the municipal administrations' answers to the questions asked. The problem of the design of the new identity card issued in the bilingual area is also highlighted. The inscriptions in English have displaced those in Italian, which is the official language in the area. The Ministry of the Interior has also given an opinion and a more detailed explanation as to why this is the case.
The results of the analyses conducted lead to the conclusion that the proper implementation of bilingualism is well taken care of in constitutional and legal terms, but there is less supervision of its proper implementation. In fact, it is not at all clear whether bilingualism is implemented in administrative procedures at all, since the answers obtained from the municipal administrations in the territory neither confirm nor deny the presence of such procedures among others. The question arises as to whether the bilingualism allowance for all civil servants in these areas is reasonable. The design of the new biometric identity card to be issued in the bilingual area is in line with the law. In principle, laws clearly spell out and justify a society's moral values, and this is where the design of the current ID card has fallen down. That this is the case is evidenced by the commitment of the Ministry of the Interior to rectify the errors complained of in the design of the new identity card.
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