During the hearing, the proposals of the “Minority Safepack” initiative on how the EU law could promote minority rights, and linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe were presented
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) attended on 15 October 2020 the public hearing on the European Citizens’ Initiative entitled “Minority SafePack (MSPI)” at the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels. Deniz Servantie from ABTTF Brussels Office participated in the online hearing organized by the EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and EP Committee on Culture and Education (CULT), in association with the EP Committee on Petitions (PETI).
During the hearing, concrete legislative proposals on minority rights and the protection and promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe which are within the initiative which was launched in 2013 by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) of which ABTTF is an ordinary member were presented by MSPI’s Citizens’ Committee members and FUEN Presidium members to the MEPs and senior representatives from the European Commission, the EU Council, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency and the European Committee of the Regions.
During the session, MSPI’s Citizens’ Committee Representative and Honorary President of FUEN Hans Heinrich Hansen, MSPI’s Citizens’ Committee members Karl Heinz Lambertz and Valentin Inzko and Vice Presidents of FUEN Angelika Mlinar and Daniel Alfreider presented the initiative.
During the first part of the session, the speakers debated on equality and support to minorities, especially in relation to the EU cohesion policy, EU funding and state aid. The second round focused on the issues pertaining to language, education, culture and audio-visual media. The MSPI received an overwhelmingly positive feedback from the MEPs and representatives of the EU organs during the hearing.
The MSPI has secured over 1 million 300 thousand signatures and constitutes the fifth European Citizens’ Initiative to be successful by fulfilling the conditions set by the European Commission. The MSPI aims at enhancing the rights of national and linguistic minorities in Europe and the creation of a minority protection mechanism at EU level, and calls upon the EU to use the tools in its possession and to take a series of legislative acts in that respect.
Following the public hearing, the MSPI will be discussed at the EP Plenary and there will be a vote on the initiative. In the following period, the European Commission is required to decide on the concrete legislative proposals contained in the initiative.
*Image: www.fuen.org
