FUEN presented the MSPI legislative proposals to members of the German Bundestag

On Monday, 10 February 2020 FUEN was invited to the roundtable meeting of the four national minorities in Germany with the members of the Committee on Internal Affairs of the German Bundestag to inform the German Minority Council as well as the present members of the Bundestag and the Federal Commissioner of the Government for National Minorities, Prof. Dr. Bernd Fabritius about the latest developments concerning the Minority SafePack Initiative.  For the first time the „Niederdeutsch”language group also took part in the meeting as an official member of the round table.

Eleven members of the German Bundestag from the political groups Die Linke, SPD, CDU/CSU and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen were present at the meeting with the Committee on Internal Affairs. The Federal Government participated with representatives of the Federal Ministry for Internal Affairs in large numbers in the meeting. 

FUEN Secretary General Éva Pénzes and FUEN Legal Advisor Roman Roblek presented the current developments of the Minority SafePack Initiative (MSPI). For the first time, the legislative proposals of FUEN prepared by legal experts were presented in detail. The legal advisor of FUEN presented the contents converted into legislative proposals such as the establishment of a European Centre for Language Diversity or the improvement of cross-border access to audiovisual media services to the audience.

This makes Germany one of the first countries in which the legislative proposals of the MSPI were presented in detail and handed over for evaluation, shortly after the legal act proposals were presented to the European Commission in Brussels on 5 February.

FUEN Secretary General Éva Pénzes pointed out the historical importance of the MSPI for minorities in Europe: “I hope that our proposals will make history and that our ECI will be the first that the Commission will propose legislation on. We have tried to be as ambitious as possible within the framework of our Citizens' Initiative. I hope that Germany, as our strong partner, will support the MSPI and promote it at European level".

Prof.Dr. Bernd Fabritius stressed that he supports the Minority SafePack Initiative in principle with open arms, but that the individual proposals must now be reviewed. The Federal Ministry on Internal Affairs intends to have discussion with FUEN and our legal experts in this regard.

A detailed description of the meeting and the other topics that were articulated during this round table meeting can be found here!