ABTTF President: “The unanimous adoption of the resolution by the German Federal Parliament is a very important step in the path to the implementation by the European Commission of the ‘Minority SafePack Initiative’ aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of minorities in Europe including the Turkish community in Western Thrace.”
The German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) unanimously adopted on 27 November 2020 a resolution in support of the European Citizens’ Initiative entitled “Minority SafePack (MSPI)”. In its resolution, the German Bundestag calls on the European Commission to implement the initiative launched in 2013 and coordinated by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), of which the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) is a full member.
It is noted in the resolution that the MSPI is certainly the most successful initiative of autochthonous national minorities in recent years, underlining that it is of crucial importance that the European Commission, the European Parliament (EP) as well as the Council of the European Union (EU) deal with the protection of minorities on an institutional level and that rights to protect national minorities are anchored in the legal framework of the EU.
In its resolution, the German Bundestag calls on the Germany’s Federal Government to support the creation of an EU-level minority protection mechanism, including the provision of sufficient financial resources.
A text of resolution supporting the initiative is currently being prepared in the EP and the resolution is expected to be adopted by the EP Plenary Session on 14 December 2020. On the other hand, the European Commission is required to present its legal and political conclusions on the initiative and its follow-up no later than 15 January 2021.
“In Germany, where the FUEN is headquartered, the Federal Parliament declared in a resolution it adopted unanimously its open support for the ‘Minority SafePack Initiative’. It is gratifying that all political parties with a group in the Federal Parliament support the initiative. The resolution of the German Federal Parliament is a very important step in the path to the implementation by the European Commission of the initiative aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of minorities in Europe including the Turkish community in Western Thrace. When the concrete legal provisions in the initiative are implemented by the European Commission, the protection of national minorities in Europe and the promoting of linguistic and cultural diversity will be one of the general policy areas of the EU that are binding for all Member States”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
