FRA launches its report on protection of minorities

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) examines in its report entitled “Respect for and protection of persons belonging to minorities: 2008-2010” what the Treaty of Lisbon has introduced in the field of the protection of minorities. The report provides evidence of the still persistent phenomenon of discrimination found in many areas of life, including employment, housing, healthcare and education.

The Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in Greece deprived of quality minority education

The Agency also examines in its report discrimination and racism in education and as regards of Greece, it is referred to the 2009 report of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in which the Committee expresses concern about the alleged limited access for children from the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace to quality minority education

“The Agency’s report on protection of persons belonging to minorities can be accepted as an indication that importance given to minorities at the EU level has been increasing. Then since we have become a member of the Fundamental Rights Platform (FRP), a network launched by the Agency to ensure a structured dialogue and enhanced cooperation and information exchange with civil society, we have persistently expressed that the Agency does not pay adequate levels of importance to national minorities and requested that the Agency’s competence in this area is increased. After the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in 2009, for the first time in EU history, the term “the rights of persons belonging to minorities” is used in a legally binding text which constitutes a part of the primary law of the Union. It is quite considerable that the Agency draws attention to the situation of national minorities within the EU by referring to the reports of international organizations as of the moment. We would like the Agency to examine in the near future the situation of national minorities living in Europe on the basis of data collected by the Agency itself.” said Halit Habipoglu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).