The decade-long harmonious relations between the National Council for the Maltese Language and other entities risked being lost soon, L-Akkademja tal-Malti has warned.

The council will tonight be reporting on the outcome of meetings it had on the government’s proposed amendments to the Maltese Language Act. It will also be tabling its objections to what has been proposed.

“All the work and effort by the National Council for the Maltese Language will be rendered useless once the proposed changes come into place,” a spokesman for L-Akkademja tal-Malti said yesterday.

L-Akkademja has insisted on several occasions that, if the changes to the law were to come into force, the decisions on the Maltese language would no longer be made by language experts but by people who might not have the necessary qualifications.

Last week, along with five other entities, the body noted that the government’s proposals to amend the law were not many but it felt that, by reducing academic input, the language council would be weakened.

All the work and effort by the National Council for the Maltese Language will be rendered useless once the proposed changes come into place

Through its objections to the proposed changes, L-Akkademja said it was hoping to highlight the importance of maintaining the sense of harmony that existed over the past decade and avoid having important decisions made by an “in­adequately-qualified majority”, the spokesman said.

L-Akkademja has argued that the language council had always had 11 members – seven members who were qualified in Maltese and another four. One of the council’s roles is to promote a suitable language policy and strategy for the Maltese islands.

The government is proposing that there would be 13 members with six being qualified in the language, meaning the majority would not necessarily having such qualifications.

The Education Ministry dismissed the academics’ concerns, saying the proposals would be strengthening the council and not lower its level of expertise.

It deemed unfounded the academics’ concerns that the amendments could lead to the nomination of technical committee heads who did not have the necessary qualifications. The ministry added that L-Akkademja tal-Malti and the University’s Department of Maltese would still be allowed to propose committee heads.

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