The European Commission has registered in its online system the signatures collected in support of the Minority SafePack European Citizenship Initiative for Minorities.
The signature drive initiated by Romania’s ethnic Hungarian party of RMDSZ (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) and coordinated by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) was launched in April 2017. A total of 1,128,385 signatures were gathered across the 28 EU Member States over the year-long campaign. These were then countersigned by the European Commission, which also issued a statement regarding the initiative on Friday.
All signatures requesting the support and protection of the Union for indigenous minorities and ethnic communities were submitted online. A meeting will now take place within a month, where the EU commissioners and directors general will greet the initiative’s petitioners and representatives of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN).
The commission has six months to adopt an official position on the initiative, which seeks European Union protection for indigenous national minorities within the bloc, and to decide on the process of enshrining it into law. The initiative will also be debated in the European Parliament.
“The filing of the signatures is an important step in the history of the Minority SafePack. This is the prerequisite for us: presenting our plans also in person to the commissioners and directors general in February and submitting the legal provisions prepared by our expert group,” stated Loránt Vincze, Member of the European Parliament and President of FUEN.
“We also see the plenary debate in Parliament as a great opportunity, since, if it concludes with a positive decision, it will put enormous pressure on the EC to decide in favor of the legislation. In the meantime, the lobbying that we do in the capitals of Europe continues, asking governments and national parliaments to signal to the European Commission that they are supportive of this issue and they consider the legislation regarding the indigenous minorities important,” the MEP reported.
Update: EU court rejects Romanian attempt to block Minority SafePack
