European Parliament adopted resolution on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2012

On 27 February 2014, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation of fundamen-tal rights in the EU for 2012. The resolution prepared within the realm of EP Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee by the rapporteur MEP Louis Michel has been adopted at the Strasbourg Plenary Session.

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) was in liaison with LIBE Committee members during the preparatory phase of the report and submitted proposals for amendments re-garding equality, solidarity, citizenship and justice. Certain amendment proposals submitted by ABTTF to MEPs were forwarded to the Committee and following the last review they have been adopted by all committee members.

National minorities are treated as secondary citizens in their own countries

Reporting traditional, ethnic and linguistic minorities as 10% of the total EU population, the resolu-tion states national or ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities encounter obstacles in justice, health and social services, as well as in education and culture. The resolution furthermore underlines the respective minorities, which are treated as second-class citizens by the national authorities of their own Member States, have specific needs that are different from those of other minority groups, and calls public policies to focus on addressing these needs in a more appropriate way.

EC shall establish a policy standard to protect national minorities

The resolutions states regarding the traditional minorities in the EU Member States a single solution cannot be reached, yet underlines the urgency to formulate common minimum standards at disposal of public authorities. Following the example of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, MEPs stresses the need for a comprehensive EU protection system for traditional na-tional minorities, regional linguistic groups and constitutional regions accompanied by a functioning monitoring mechanism.

You can access the resolution under the following link: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7-TA-2014-0173&format=XML&language=EN