Representatives of the Hungarian Government stressed the necessity of the EU regulation of minority protection at the Kolozsvár Congress of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN).

Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén congratulated FUEN in his message read out at the Congress on the European civic initiative Minority SafePack, and emphasised: the time has come to also discuss the case of national minorities at a European level. “The European Commission, too, has realised that this is a common cause which does not only concern minorities, but every EU citizen and every Member State”, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Mr Semjén encouraged European minorities to take advantage of the signature collection campaign of the civic initiative and to use it for drawing attention to the status of minorities so that “the cause of national minorities should be featured on the European political agenda with sufficient weight”.

Minister of State for Nation Policy Árpád János Potápi, who welcomed the Congress, stressed that Hungary stands up for the rights of minorities at international forums. It therefore took part in the legal proceedings brought against the European Commission on the side of those responsible for the initiative, which eventually led to the registration of the civic initiative.

The Minister of State confirmed that Hungary and the nation parts living beyond its borders equally take their share in the collection of the required one million signatures. He added: cultural diversity is part of European identity. He stressed: the EU’s sixty million minority citizens expect the EU not to merely declare diversity as a value in the Treaties, but to create favourable conditions for the preservation of minority identities and for the advancement of minorities in their native lands with effective regulation.

(MTI)