Funding from the Frisian provincial council will be set aside for municipalities to develop their own policy for the Frisian language.
Translation by Traci White
The Leeuwarder Courant reports that the province is setting aside 450,000 euros for the municipalities, which are legally required to have their own rules and policy about using the Frisian language. According to alderperson Sietske Poepjes, many municipalities in the province cannot cover the expenses themselves, nor should they be required to.
Omrop Fryslân writes that the goal of the policy is to stimulate the use of the provincial language, and the municipalities can decide for themselves how to go about doing that. Some areas choose to carry out more official government business in Frisian, and others use the funding to create programmes to get younger generations to speak more Frisian.
The province has made language policy funding available in the past, but the financial contribution will now be provided on a structural basis. Every municipality is supposed to have their own language policy by 2021, except for Westellingwerf and the Wadden islands.
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