“People must always come first.”

On Saturday, 20 May 2023, MEP Irena Joveva spoke to the daily Dnevnik’s Objektiv magazine about the issues surrounding the provision of services or products in Slovenian by multinationals present in Slovenia. She stressed that the most important thing is that their users always come first, and that legislation explicitly prevents language discrimination, not least in the digital world.

The MEP first commented on the fact that Apple is well aware of the past efforts, events and outcomes in relation to the use of Slovenian, and that they are also aware of the debate that took place in the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture. Given that the Ministry of Culture has publicly promised legislative changes and a public debate, in which, according to Joveva, Apple would also like to be involved, Joveva assumes that this is mainly to be attributed to the timeline for the implementation of a possible new law. All companies care a lot about their public image, she added.

“There is nothing wrong with listening to them, dialogue is always welcome, but of course the most important thing is to make sure that the users of the services or products offered by these companies come first and that the legislation is explicitly worded in a way that abolishes language discrimination in the digital world as soon as possible. It can simply not be allowed in the EU market, in an EU Member State, in relation to an official EU language.”

According to Joveva, one of the possible solutions at the European level is to revise the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

“We need to unambiguously enact an obligation for all companies operating in the EU market to offer content and services in all the official languages of the EU or in the official language(s) of the Member State in which they operate, regardless of the place or country in which they are based.”

Joveva also suggested the possibility of seeking the European Commission’s assistance in bringing an action before the European Court of Justice to request legal clarification and to safeguard the implementation of the relevant articles of the Directive. She could also imagine new, separate rules to be adopted at EU level.

“At this stage, all of us who are trying to solve this issue are really counting on good draft amendments to the legislation in Slovenia. I am confident that the ministry’s working group will provide just that; and as I have already said, I hope this can be done as soon as possible.”

Read the article in Slovenian here.