Count down started for Minority Citizens’ Initiative

Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) Director Jan Diedrichsen visited the Head Office of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) in Witten. Director Diedrichsen and ABTTF President Halit Habipoglu held a meeting on “Minority Citizens’ Initiative”, which is to take off in June 2013.

ABTTF and FUEN discussed the details of the Minority Citizens’ Initiative

FUEN will give a start to the Minority Citizens’ Initiative formed in reference to the European Citizens Initiative in force since 1 April 2012 and confers European citizens the right to submit legislative proposal to the European Commission. Likewise, Minority Citizens’ Initiative is to guarantee the same rights to the citizens which belong to minorities.

The respective project with start date June 2013 will be instrumental for FUEN, in partnership with Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség – RMDSZ), South Tyrolean People’s Party (Südtirol Volkspartei – SVP) in the regional autonomous assembly of the province and the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) in representation of youth of the European minorities, to bring together the minorities of Europe for a common goal and to raise EU’s awareness on European minorities.

Western Thrace Turkish Minority will be one of the contributors to Citizens’ Initiative

Provided European Commission approves the proposal which will be submitted in June 2013, the initiative requires 1 Billion signatures from at least 7 out of 27 Member States of the EU: In accordance with the respective regulations, the Western Thrace Turkish Minority will be one the seven founding partners of the initiative with 16.500 (from Greece) and 74.250 (from Germany) potential signatures. As an ally to initiative, ABTTF will run a parallel campaign in Greece in partnership with institutions in representation of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority.

Minority Citizen Initiative will at the same be a political campaign for the sake of gathering the European minorities under an umbrella for a common mission by 2014 when the European elections are due. FUEN and its partners are expected to collect 1 Billion signatures in a year. The validity of the signatures collected in each Member State is going to be evaluated by national authorities. At the end of the process, with 1 Billion signatures collected and verified, the European Commission will completed further executive procedure and hold a public hearing in at the European Parliament within three months and announce the adoption of a decision on the initiative.