The signature collection of the Szekler National Council can continue, the Justice Minister informed members of the public on her Facebook account on Thursday evening.

Judit Varga wrote that the plenary session of the European Parliament voted for the amendment of the regulation relating to European Citizens’ Initiatives. The amendment also affects the Szekler National Council’s initiative concerning national regions.

As a result, she pointed out, “the signature collection process which became frustrated due to the coronavirus epidemic” has been extended by the lost period.

Ms. Varga highlighted that thanks to exemplary cooperation and unity, more than a million EU citizens have already supported the initiative. At the same time, she stressed, in addition to the criterion of 1 million signatures, the condition that a fixed number of signatures must be collected in one quarter of the Member States must also be fulfilled.

The signature collection started on 7 May last year, and in one year one million signatures had to be collected from minimum seven Member States in order for the European Parliament to table the issue. While the one million signatures have been collected, only three EU countries – Hungary, Romania and Slovakia – have been able to achieve the minimum signature number required by law.

On Thursday, the European Parliament approved the proposal presented by the European Commission which sought to retroactively extend the deadlines relating to the collection and verification of the signatures necessary for European Citizens’ Initiatives. According to the new rules, with regard to the coronavirus epidemic, the original period for the collection of signatures has been extended by six months in the case of initiatives which were already in progress on 11 March 2020.

(Ministry of Justice/MTI)