The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled that Lithuania has the right to impose Lithuanian spellings of Polish surnames on its territory.

The European Court of Justice made a ruling on the matter following a motion forwarded by Pawel Wardyn, a lawyer from Poland, and his Lithuanian wife of Polish descent, Malgozata Runevicz-Vardyn, whose application to change her name using Polish orthography was rejected by the civil registry in Vilnius.

The married couple described the move as discriminatory, although Lithuanian authorities upheld the decision, arguing that as a sovereign state it holds a constitutional right to how surnames should be written in that country.

The court’s justification on Wednesday furthermore stated that rules on spelling and orthography do not limit freedoms which are conferred by Article 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which stipulates the “right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.”

The case ruled that as a Lithuanian citizen, the lawyer’s wife, namely Malgozata Runevic (including Lithuanian diacritics), cannot ask for a change to Malgorzata Runiewicz (Polish orthography, diacritics omitted) under Lithuanian law. This also goes for the surname of her husband, as there is no letter ‘W’ in the Lithuanian alphabet.

Both Warsaw and Vilnius have been at loggerheads over the right to use Polish orthography when spelling names in Lithuania, with parliamentarians in Lithuania passing a bill refusing such a right during a visit of former President Lech Kaczynski.

Lithuanians then countered arguments that certain Polish diacritic signs do not exist in the Lithuanian language, and that it is not a question of blatant discrimination. (jb)

Full text from the European Court of Justice can be seen here.