Minority SafePack - one million signatures for diversity in Europe - the current European Citizenship and National Minority Rights Initiative in the European Union, supported by FUEN .
Content
Contents
The proposals of the initiative registered by the European Commission are summarized by the authors as follows: [1] )
- Adoption of the EU recommendation on the protection and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity,
- Financing programs for small language communities,
- Creation of the Center for Linguistic Diversity,
- The inclusion of the protection of national minorities and the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity in the objectives of the EU regional development funds,
- Studies on the value added by minorities to societies and Europe,
- Approaching equal rights for minorities affected by statelessness, such as Roma,
- Unified European copyright law for services and broadcasting in the mother tongue,
- The freedom to provide services and receive audiovisual content in regions inhabited by minorities,
- Allowing regions and states to provide subsidies for the culture, media and preservation of the cultural heritage of minorities.
Two proposals rejected by the European Commission: [2]
- Adoption of a directive, regulation or decision to strengthen the position of citizens belonging to national minorities in the EU, in order to take into account their legitimate interests in the elections of the European Parliament;
- Measures to combat discrimination and promote equal treatment, including for national minorities, in particular by reviewing the Council’s current directives on equal treatment.
Legal proceedings and registration of an initiative
The European Commission in 2013 refused to register the proposed initiative. The authors, among whom was Valentin Intsko , appealed the denial in court, where they were supported by Hungary, and the European Commission - Slovakia and Romania. In February 2017, the European Court of General Jurisdiction overturned the decision of the European Commission. [3] In March 2017, the European Commission decided to start collecting signatures for 9 of the 11 proposals originally included in the initiative. [2]
Signature Collection
The collection of signatures began on April 3, 2017 and lasted until April 3, 2018. It is possible to subscribe both online and on paper forms.
771,089 EU citizens signed up online under the initiative (the union-wide threshold value for the sum of paper and electronic signatures is 1,000,000). The country threshold has been reached by online signatures in nine with the required seven states - in Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Denmark, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia and Slovenia. [four]
According to the FUEN report dated April 4, 2018, more than 1.2 million signatures were collected in total online and offline, and the country threshold was crossed in 11 countries: Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Denmark, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Italy. [5] On July 25, it was confirmed that more than 1.1 million signatures were recognized as valid. [6]
The initiative was supported by the parliaments of the Basque Country [7] and Navarra [8] , as well as the Euroregion Tirol – South Tyrol – Trentino [9] ; an invitation to sign it was published on the portal of the parliament of the German-speaking community of Belgium. [10] According to the FUEN, support was also expressed by the President of the European Parliament [11] and the Hungarian Parliament [12] .
Notes
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ 1 2 Commission registers' Minority Safepack 'European Citizens' Initiative
- ↑ Judgment of the General Court in Case T ‑ 646/13
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ FUEN'S SUCCESSFUL MINORITY SAFEPACK INITIATIVE CREATED A EUROPEAN MOVEMENT FOR MINORITY RIGHTS (English)
- ↑ MINORITY SAFEPACK: WE HAVE GOT THE VALIDATED SIGNATURES; WE NEED TO SECURE THE SUPPORT OF THE MAJORITY
- ↑ [3] (Spanish)
- ↑ [4] (Spanish)
- ↑ Minority SafePack, Euregio sostiene la campagna (Italian)
- ↑ [5] (German)
- ↑ [6]
- ↑ [7]