DEMAND TO SPELL NAMES IN LITHUANIAN LETTERS DOES NOT RUN COUNTER EU'S ACQUIS - COURT (BNS, 12 May 2011)
VILNIUS, May 12, BNS - The Luxembourg-based court European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday the existing rules in Lithuania providing for the spelling of names and surnames only in the state language do not constitute a violation.
According to the court, the rules stipulating spelling of citizen names and surnames in a state language characters do not limit a person's right to free movement.The controversial case was transferred to the European Court of Justice by a Vilnius court. A complaint was lodged by a Lithuanian citizen Malgozata Runevic-Vardyn after a Lithuanian civil registry office refused to spell her name in her birth certificate as Malgorzata Runiewicz and as Malgorzata Runiewicz-Wardyn in her marriage certificate. The woman, currently living in Belgium with her Polish citizen husband, said she experiences problems in her private and professional lives due to the difference in spelling of her and her husband's names.
Lithuania believes the rules do not run counter the EU's acquis, and the country has the right to decide on how names are spelled. At the moment, all names in Lithuania must be spelled using only letters of the Lithuanian alphabet, which doesn't have letters like "w" or "q".
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