Ordinance
on the National Languages and Understanding between the Linguistic Communities
(Languages Ordinance, LangO)

(Art. 4 para. 2 LangA)

Whenev­er, in the cases de­scribed in Art­icle 4 para­graph 2 of the LangA, a unit of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion sets stra­tegic ob­ject­ives or pre­pares a ser­vice agree­ment or a sim­il­ar in­stru­ment with an or­gan­isa­tion or per­son op­er­at­ing throughout Switzer­land, it must veri­fy if:

a.

cri­ter­ia or ob­ject­ives in ac­cord­ance with the re­quire­ments of Sec­tion 2 of the LangA should be in­cluded in the stra­tegic ob­ject­ives or in­stru­ments;

b.

cer­tain pro­vi­sions in Sec­tion 2 of the LangA should be deemed ap­plic­able by way of or­din­ance.

(Art. 7 LangA)

¹ The fed­er­al texts that are pub­lished must be drawn up in all of the of­fi­cial lan­guages in an ap­pro­pri­ate, clear and cit­izen-friendly man­ner and must com­ply with the prin­ciples of gender equal­ity in lan­guage.³

² The units of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion shall take the ne­ces­sary or­gan­isa­tion­al meas­ures to guar­an­tee the qual­ity of the draft­ing and form of texts. The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall draw up in­struc­tions es­tab­lish­ing qual­ity stand­ards for the draft­ing and form of texts.⁴

(Art. 11 LangA)

¹ The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall co­ordin­ate with­in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion the trans­la­tion and pub­lic­a­tion of texts in Ro­man­sh.

² The texts shall be trans­lated in­to Ro­man­sh in col­lab­or­a­tion with the Chan­cellery of the Can­ton of Graubünden.

³ The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall en­sure that le­gis­lat­ive texts trans­lated in­to Ro­man­sh are con­tinu­ally up­dated.

⁴ It is re­spons­ible for Ro­man­sh ter­min­o­logy with­in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and shall pub­lish it on­line.

(Art. 12 para. 2 LangA)

¹ The units of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion shall provide the key con­tent of their web­sites in French, Ger­man and Itali­an. Key con­tent is de­term­ined by the sig­ni­fic­ance of the text and of the tar­get read­ers.⁵

² They shall also of­fer a se­lec­tion of con­tent in Ro­man­sh, in con­sulta­tion with the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.

(Art. 13 LangA)

¹ In­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments may be con­cluded in Eng­lish:

a.

in ur­gent cir­cum­stances;

b.

if this is re­quired by the spe­cif­ic form of the agree­ment; or

c.

if it is stand­ard prac­tice in in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions in Switzer­land to do so in the area con­cerned.

² Nev­er­the­less, every ef­fort should be made to pro­duce an ori­gin­al ver­sion in one of the of­fi­cial lan­guages.

(Art. 9 and 20 LangA)

¹ The em­ploy­ers of the per­son­nel of the fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive units re­ferred to in Art­icle 1 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Or­din­ance of 3 Ju­ly 2001⁷ on the Per­son­nel of the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion (FPersO), with the ex­cep­tion of the ETH Do­main, shall en­sure that em­ploy­ees are not dis­ad­vant­aged on the basis of their mem­ber­ship of a spe­cif­ic lin­guist­ic com­munity.

² In par­tic­u­lar, they shall en­sure that all em­ploy­ees, ir­re­spect­ive of their lin­guist­ic com­munity:

a.

may choose to work in French, Ger­man or Itali­an, un­less there are good reas­ons for car­ry­ing out the work in a lan­guage oth­er than the chosen one;

b.

may par­ti­cip­ate equally in the de­cision-mak­ing pro­cess in ac­cord­ance with their qual­i­fic­a­tions;

c.

have the same pro­spects for de­vel­op­ment and pro­mo­tion.

(Art. 20 para. 2 LangA and Art. 4 para. 2 let. e FPA⁹)

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tion of lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies in the fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive units re­ferred to in Art­icle 1 para­graph 1 let­ters a and b of the FPersO¹⁰, with the ex­cep­tion of the ETH Do­main, must aim to achieve the fol­low­ing ranges, in­clud­ing for man­age­ment po­s­i­tions:

a.

Ger­man: 68.5 – 70.5%

b.

French: 21.5 – 23.5%

c.

Itali­an: 6.5 – 8.5%

d.

Ro­man­sh: 0.5 – 1.0%

² Rep­res­ent­a­tion of the Ro­mance lan­guage com­munit­ies may ex­ceed the up­per lim­it of the ranges spe­cified in para­graph 1 let­ters b to d.

³ When re­cruit­ing per­son­nel, the em­ploy­ers re­ferred to in para­graph 1 shall en­sure that can­did­ates from all lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies pro­gress from the preselec­tion phase to the in­ter­views, provided they ful­fil the ob­ject­ive cri­ter­ia. Where can­did­ates have equal qual­i­fic­a­tions, pri­or­ity shall be giv­en to those who be­long to a lin­guist­ic com­munity that is un­der­rep­res­en­ted in the ad­min­is­trat­ive unit in ques­tion; this ap­plies in par­tic­u­lar for man­age­ment po­s­i­tions.

(Art. 20 para. 1 LangA and Art. 4 para. 2 let. e^bis FPA¹²)

¹ The em­ploy­ers re­ferred to in Art­icle 6 para­graph 1 shall en­sure that:

a.

all em­ploy­ees have the or­al and writ­ten skills in a second of­fi­cial lan­guage re­quired for per­form­ing their du­ties;

b.

all middle man­age­ment em­ploy­ees have good act­ive know­ledge of at least a second of­fi­cial lan­guage and, where pos­sible, pass­ive know­ledge of a third of­fi­cial lan­guage;

c.

all seni­or man­age­ment em­ploy­ees and all middle man­age­ment em­ploy­ees with team lead­er­ship re­spons­ib­il­it­ies have good act­ive know­ledge of at least a second of­fi­cial lan­guage and pass­ive know­ledge of a third of­fi­cial lan­guage.

² Em­ploy­ers shall of­fer their em­ploy­ees French, Ger­man and Itali­an lan­guage courses.

³ If a mem­ber of man­age­ment does not have the re­quired lan­guage skills when re­cruited, the em­ploy­er shall take the meas­ures ne­ces­sary to im­prove their skills with­in one year of re­cruit­ment.

⁴Train­ing re­quired for ac­quir­ing lan­guage skills is con­sidered to be train­ing which meets the needs of the ser­vice with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 4 para­graph 4 of the FPersO¹³.

(Art. 20 para. 1 and 2 LangA)

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall set the stra­tegic ob­ject­ives in con­nec­tion with the pro­mo­tion of pluri­lin­gual­ism for each le­gis­lat­ive peri­od.

(Art. 20 para. 1 and 2 LangA)

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ap­point a del­eg­ate for pluri­lin­gual­ism (the Fed­er­al Del­eg­ate for Pluri­lin­gual­ism), who will be af­fil­i­ated to the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Fin­ance.

² The tasks of the Fed­er­al Del­eg­ate for Pluri­lin­gual­ism in­clude:

a.

sup­port­ing the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in set­ting the stra­tegic ob­ject­ives and mon­it­or­ing their im­ple­ment­a­tion;

b.

co­ordin­at­ing and eval­u­at­ing the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the stra­tegic ob­ject­ives by the de­part­ments and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery;

c.

ad­vising and sup­port­ing the de­part­ments, the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery as well as their sub­or­din­ate ad­min­is­trat­ive units and their per­son­nel on pluri­lin­gual­ism mat­ters and rais­ing aware­ness of these mat­ters;

d.

col­lab­or­at­ing with can­ton­al ser­vices and oth­er pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tions and main­tain­ing con­tacts with ex­tern­al in­sti­tu­tions that pro­mote pluri­lin­gual­ism;

e.

keep­ing the gen­er­al pub­lic reg­u­larly in­formed on mat­ters con­cern­ing pluri­lin­gual­ism;

f.

rep­res­ent­ing the Con­fed­er­a­tion in na­tion­al bod­ies that pro­mote pluri­lin­gual­ism.

(Art. 20 para. 1 and 2 LangA)

¹The de­part­ments and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery to­geth­er with their sub­or­din­ate ad­min­is­trat­ive units shall es­tab­lish a range of meas­ures for a four-year peri­od for im­ple­ment­ing the stra­tegic ob­ject­ives.

²The ad­min­is­trat­ive units are re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing the range of meas­ures and shall provide the fin­an­cial and hu­man re­sources ne­ces­sary for the pro­mo­tion of pluri­lin­gual­ism.

(Art. 20 para. 1 and 2 LangA)

¹The an­nu­al per­son­nel man­age­ment re­port for the at­ten­tion of the par­lia­ment­ary su­per­vis­ory com­mit­tees must in­clude a sec­tion on the de­vel­op­ment of the rep­res­ent­a­tion of the lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies in the ad­min­is­trat­ive units re­ferred to in Art­icle 7 para­graph 1.

² The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Per­son­nel shall provide the Fed­er­al Del­eg­ate for Pluri­lin­gual­ism with de­tailed stat­ist­ics on the rep­res­ent­a­tion of the lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies among em­ploy­ees of the ad­min­is­trat­ive units re­ferred to in Art­icle 7 para­graph 1, par­tic­u­larly among those in man­age­ment po­s­i­tions. The stat­ist­ics shall be com­piled on the basis of the data and ana­lyses con­tained in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion’s per­son­nel in­form­a­tion sys­tem (BV PLUS).

³ The de­part­ments and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall sub­mit a re­port to the Fed­er­al Del­eg­ate for Pluri­lin­gual­ism every four years con­tain­ing quant­it­at­ive and qual­it­at­ive in­form­a­tion on the status of pluri­lin­gual­ism and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art­icles 6 to 8 in their ad­min­is­trat­ive units. They shall provide the Del­eg­ate with ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion on pluri­lin­gual­ism mat­ters in their de­part­ments and ad­min­is­trat­ive units when re­ques­ted.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Del­eg­ate for Pluri­lin­gual­ism shall pre­pare an eval­u­ation re­port for the at­ten­tion of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil every four years based on the re­ports of the de­part­ments and Fed­er­al Chan­cellery. The Del­eg­ate shall also make re­com­mend­a­tions in the eval­u­ation re­port on the thrust of pluri­lin­gual­ism policy in the fu­ture.

⁵ If a de­part­ment or the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery mani­festly fails to com­ply with the pro­vi­sions on the pro­mo­tion of pluri­lin­gual­ism, the Fed­er­al Del­eg­ate for Pluri­lin­gual­ism may is­sue re­com­mend­a­tions for the de­part­ment in ques­tion or the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.

(Art. 14 LangA)

In or­der to pro­mote school ex­changes, Move­tia, the Swiss Found­a­tion for the Pro­mo­tion of Ex­changes and Mo­bil­ity, shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for:

a.

de­vel­op­ing and con­duct­ing pro­grammes to pro­mote school ex­changes;

b.

provid­ing ad­vice, as­sist­ance and sup­port to ex­change pro­jects;

c.

doc­u­ment­ing, eval­u­at­ing and provid­ing in­form­a­tion on ex­change op­por­tun­it­ies and ex­change activ­it­ies.

(Art. 16 let. a and b LangA)¹⁹

In or­der to pro­mote the na­tion­al lan­guages in the cur­riculum, the can­tons shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for:

a.²⁰

pro­jects to de­vel­op con­cepts and di­dact­ic aids for teach­ing a second and third na­tion­al lan­guage that are in­nov­at­ive or are rel­ev­ant to the com­mon edu­ca­tion policy goals of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons;

b.

pro­jects for pro­mot­ing the ac­quis­i­tion of an­oth­er na­tion­al lan­guage through bi­lin­gual in­struc­tion;

c.

pro­mot­ing skills in the loc­al na­tion­al lan­guage among chil­dren whose first lan­guage is not a na­tion­al lan­guage pri­or to start­ing primary school.

(Art. 16 let. c LangA)

In or­der to pro­mote know­ledge of their first lan­guage among speak­ers of oth­er lan­guages, the can­tons shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for the fol­low­ing meas­ures:

a.

de­vel­op­ing con­cepts for in­teg­rated learn­ing in the lan­guage and cul­ture of ori­gin;

b.

con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment for teach­ers;

c.

de­vel­op­ing di­dact­ic aids.

(Art. 17 LangA)

¹ In or­der to pro­mote ap­plied re­search in the field of lan­guages and pluri­lin­gual­ism, the In­sti­tute of Mul­ti­lin­gual­ism at the Uni­versity of Fri­bourg and the Uni­versity of Teach­er Edu­ca­tion, Fri­bourg shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for:

a.

co­ordin­at­ing, man­aging and con­duct­ing re­search;

b.

op­er­at­ing a doc­u­ment­a­tion of­fice;

c.

main­tain­ing a na­tion­al re­search net­work;

d.

work­ing with in­ter­na­tion­al re­search net­works and aca­dem­ic or­gan­isa­tions.

² The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Cul­ture (FOC) shall enter in­to a ser­vice agree­ment with the In­sti­tute for Mul­ti­lin­gual­ism.

(Art. 18 let. a LangA)

News agen­cies of na­tion­al im­port­ance may be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance if they re­port reg­u­larly from all four lan­guage re­gions in at least three na­tion­al lan­guages on top­ics re­lat­ing to lan­guage and cul­ture policy and the policy of pro­mot­ing un­der­stand­ing.

(Art. 18 let. b LangA)

¹ In or­der to pro­mote un­der­stand­ing between the lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies, or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions may be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for:

a.

activ­it­ies that serve to raise pub­lic aware­ness of pluri­lin­gual­ism by:

1.

pro­mot­ing the prac­tice, per­cep­tion and ap­pre­ci­ation of pluri­lin­gual­ism, and

2.

fa­cil­it­at­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion in pluri­lin­gual cul­tur­al activ­it­ies;

b.

activ­it­ies that serve to net­work act­ors in­volved in pro­mot­ing un­der­stand­ing between lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies by:

1.

en­cour­aging the ex­change of know­ledge and ex­per­i­ences, and

2.

es­tab­lish­ing and main­tain­ing co­oper­a­tion.

² The or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions must meet the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

a.

they must be act­ive in at least two lin­guist­ic re­gions;

b.

they must be non-profit;

c.

they must have been car­ry­ing out aware­ness-rais­ing and net­work­ing activ­it­ies with­in the mean­ing of para­graph 1 for at least three years.

³ The amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be cal­cu­lated on the basis of:

a.

the type and sig­ni­fic­ance of the activ­it­ies;

b.

the qual­ity and im­pact of the activ­it­ies;

c.

own con­tri­bu­tions and those of third parties.

⁴ The fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall amount to a max­im­um of 50 per cent of the costs in­curred by the or­gan­isa­tion or in­sti­tu­tion in car­ry­ing out the activ­it­ies. Up to 10 per cent of these costs claimed may be in re­spect of vol­un­tary work car­ried out as the or­gan­isa­tion or in­sti­tu­tion’s own con­tri­bu­tion.

(Art. 18 let. c LangA)

¹ Com­munit­ies may be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for pro­jects that raise aware­ness or in­volve net­work­ing as spe­cified in Art­icle 14 para­graph 1.²⁵

² The amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be cal­cu­lated on the basis of:

a.

the type and sig­ni­fic­ance of the activ­ity or pro­ject;

b.

the qual­ity and im­pact of the pro­ject;

c.

own con­tri­bu­tions and those of third parties.

(Art. 19 LangA)

¹ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for trans­la­tions may be gran­ted to or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions for their com­mu­nic­a­tion activ­ity in the vari­ous lan­guage re­gions, par­tic­u­larly for com­mu­nic­a­tion with the people tar­geted by their pub­lic be­ne­fit work.

² The or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions must meet the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

a.

they must be act­ive in at least three lan­guage re­gions;

b.

they must be non-profit;

c.

they must carry out activ­it­ies for pub­lic be­ne­fit;

d.

they must be polit­ic­ally and con­fes­sion­ally neut­ral;

e.

they must ful­fil a task re­lat­ing to policy on lan­guages and un­der­stand­ing, and their work must have a na­tion­al im­pact.

³ Or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions in re­ceipt of the fin­an­cial as­sist­ance es­tab­lished in Art­icle 14 are not en­titled to fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for trans­la­tions.

¹ In or­der to pro­mote pluri­lin­gual­ism in can­ton­al and com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies and ad­min­is­tra­tions, pluri­lin­gual can­tons shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for per­form­ing their spe­cif­ic tasks, and in par­tic­u­lar for:²⁶

a.

trans­la­tion and ter­min­o­logy ser­vices for com­mu­nic­a­tion with­in and between can­tons;

b.²⁷

lan­guage and tech­nic­al train­ing and con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment for the ad­min­is­trat­ive per­son­nel in re­la­tion to pluri­lin­gual­ism mat­ters;

c.

pro­jects for rais­ing pub­lic aware­ness of pluri­lin­gual­ism.

² Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for the pro­mo­tion of pluri­lin­gual­ism in the area of edu­ca­tion shall be gran­ted to the pluri­lin­gual can­tons for per­form­ing their spe­cif­ic tasks, and in par­tic­u­lar for:

a.

cre­at­ing di­dact­ic aids for lan­guage teach­ing;

b.

lan­guage train­ing and con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment for teach­ers;

c.

pro­jects to pro­mote the ac­quis­i­tion of a na­tion­al lan­guage through bi­lin­gual in­struc­tion at all levels of edu­ca­tion;

d.

pro­jects to pro­mote the at­tend­ance of classes in an­oth­er of­fi­cial lan­guage of the can­ton at all levels of edu­ca­tion;

e.²⁸

...

(Art. 22 para. 1 let. a LangA)

In or­der to pre­serve and pro­mote the Ro­man­sh and Itali­an lan­guages and cul­tures, the Can­ton of Graubünden shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to sup­port the can­ton’s own meas­ures in the fol­low­ing areas:

a.

lan­guage courses in state schools;

b.

trans­la­tion activ­it­ies;

c.

pub­lic­a­tions in Ro­man­sh and Itali­an;

d.

pro­mot­ing pluri­lin­gual­ism in the can­ton­al ad­min­is­tra­tion;

e.

pre­serving and pro­mot­ing lin­guist­ic and cul­tur­al iden­tity;

f.

pro­mot­ing third-party pro­jects that in­volve pluri­lin­gual­ism and pre­serving and pro­mot­ing lin­guist­ic and cul­tur­al iden­tity.

(Art. 22 para. 1 let. b LangA)

¹ The Can­ton of Graubünden shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to sup­port the in­ter­re­gion­al activ­it­ies of Ro­man­sh or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions in the fol­low­ing areas:

a.

de­vel­op­ing and im­ple­ment­ing meas­ures to pre­serve and pro­mote the Ro­man­sh lan­guage and cul­ture;

b.

lan­guage de­vel­op­ment and re­new­al;

c.

ex­tra­cur­ricular courses in Ro­man­sh lan­guage and cul­ture;

d.

ad­vice, me­di­ation and doc­u­ment­a­tion.³⁰

² Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be gran­ted to the Can­ton of Graubünden for sup­port­ing the in­ter­re­gion­al activ­it­ies of Itali­an-speak­ing or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions in the fol­low­ing areas:

a.

de­vel­op­ment and im­ple­ment­a­tion of meas­ures for pro­mot­ing Itali­an lan­guage and cul­ture;

b.

pub­lic­a­tions about Itali­an lan­guage and cul­ture;

c.

cre­ation and run­ning of a doc­u­ment­a­tion of­fice on Itali­an lan­guage and cul­ture.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion’s fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall cov­er a max­im­um of 90 per cent of the total costs of the or­gan­isa­tion or in­sti­tu­tion.

(Art. 22 para. 1 let. c LangA)

¹The Can­ton of Graubünden shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to sup­port Ro­man­sh pub­lish­ing houses that seek to pro­mote Ro­man­sh lit­er­at­ure for chil­dren, ad­oles­cents and adults.³¹

² The pub­lish­ing houses must pub­lish lit­er­ary works in Ro­man­sh. In par­tic­u­lar, they must:

a.

se­lect and copy-edit the texts;

b.

or­gan­ise print­ing and pro­duc­tion;

c.

pro­mote dis­tri­bu­tion.

(Art. 22 para. 2 LangA)

¹ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be gran­ted to the Can­ton of Graubünden for sup­port­ing news agen­cies.

² In par­tic­u­lar, the news agen­cies must:

a.

provide ed­it­or­i­al ser­vices in Ro­man­sh on a daily basis in the form of texts and pic­tures;

b.

take Ro­man­sh dia­lects and Ru­mantsch Grischun in­to con­sid­er­a­tion;

c.

make their ed­it­or­i­al ser­vices avail­able to the me­dia in elec­tron­ic form.

(Art. 22 para. 1 let. a and c LangA)

In or­der to pre­serve and pro­mote the Itali­an lan­guage and cul­ture, the Can­ton of Ti­cino shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to sup­port the can­ton’s own meas­ures in the fol­low­ing areas:

a.

re­search pro­grammes and re­search pro­jects re­lat­ing to lan­guage and cul­ture;

b.

pub­lic­a­tions of par­tic­u­lar sig­ni­fic­ance in pro­mot­ing the Itali­an lan­guage and cul­ture;

c.

events and pro­jects that pro­mote the Itali­an lan­guage and cul­ture;

d.

third-party pro­jects that in­volve pluri­lin­gual­ism and pre­serving and pro­mot­ing lin­guist­ic and cul­tur­al iden­tity.

(Art. 22 para. 1 let. b LangA)

¹ The Can­ton of Ti­cino shall be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to sup­port the in­ter­re­gion­al activ­it­ies of or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions, and in par­tic­u­lar for:

a.

pro­jects that pre­serve and pro­mote its cul­tur­al her­it­age;

b.

meas­ures to pro­mote lit­er­ary and cul­tur­al cre­ativ­ity;

c.

or­gan­ising and hold­ing events of lin­guist­ic and cul­tur­al sig­ni­fic­ance.

² The Can­ton of Ti­cino shall also be gran­ted fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to sup­port the activ­it­ies of the Os­ser­vatorio lin­guist­ico della Svizzera itali­ana.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion’s fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall cov­er a max­im­um of 90 per cent of the total costs of the or­gan­isa­tion or in­sti­tu­tion.

¹ Ap­plic­a­tions for fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be sub­mit­ted to the FOC.

² The FOC shall pub­lish the dead­line for sub­mit­ting ap­plic­a­tions in an in­vit­a­tion on its web­site.

³ The ap­plic­a­tions must in­clude proof of com­pli­ance with the re­quire­ments for fund­ing and con­tain all the re­quired de­tails re­lat­ing to the fund­ing cri­ter­ia.

⁴ Pri­or­ity shall be giv­en to ap­plic­a­tions that best meet the cri­ter­ia in an over­all as­sess­ment.

¹ The FOC shall de­cide on ap­plic­a­tions for fin­an­cial as­sist­ance. In the case of ap­plic­a­tions for fund­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 10 and 11, it shall base its de­cision on a re­com­mend­a­tion from the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Can­ton­al Dir­ect­ors of Edu­ca­tion.³⁶

² The pro­ced­ure and the leg­al rem­ed­ies are gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice.

¹ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be gran­ted with­in the lim­its of the au­thor­ised cred­its.

² If the amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance re­ques­ted ex­ceeds the re­sources avail­able, the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs shall es­tab­lish an or­der of pri­or­it­ies for as­sess­ing the ap­plic­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13 para­graph 2 of the Sub­sidies Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1990³⁷.

The re­peal and amend­ment of ex­ist­ing le­gis­la­tion are reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Ju­ly 2010.