15 October 2020: Public Hearing on the Minority SafePack Initiative in the European Parliament

The Public Hearing on the Minority SafePack European Citizens’ Initiative (MSPI) in the European Parliament will take place on 15 October 2020 from 9.00 to 13.00 CET with remote participation.

The Citizens’ Committee and experts of the Minority SafePack Initiative will present their proposals in the presence of Members of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee. The Hearing is co-organised by the Committees on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and on Culture and Education (CULT), together with the Committee on Petitions (PETI). The hearing will also involve statements by REGI, ITRE, JURI and ECON Committee members in the ECI areas falling under their competence.

On behalf of the Minority SafePack the speakers and topics will be:

Introduction:

Prof. Hans Heinrich Hansen, Representative of the MSPI Citizens’ Committee, Honorary President of FUEN, German from Denmark

Luis Durnwalder, Member of the MSPI Citizens' Committee, former Prime Minister of South Tyrol, German minority from Italy

Cohesion policy, Horizon 2020, State aid: Karl-Heinz Lambertz, Member of the MSPI Citizens' Committee, former President of the European Committee of Regions, former Minister President for the German Speaking Community inBelgium

Stateless persons, Audiovisual and Copyright: Dr Angelika Mlinar, Vice President of FUEN, Former Minister of the Republic of Slovenia on Development and European Cohesion Policy, former MEP, Slovene from Austria

Language Diversity Center: Dr Valentin Inzko, Member of the MSPI Citizens' Committee, the UN High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chairman of the National Council of Carinthian Slovenes, Slovene from Austria

EU Recommendation ‘on the protection and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity in the Union’, funding programmes: Daniel Alfreider, Vice President of FUEN, Regional minister of the Autonomous Region of Bozen South Tyrol

Closing remarks: Hunor Kelemen, Deputy Representative of the MSPI Citizens' Committee, former Deputy Prime Minister of Romania, President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania

Draft Programme of the Hearing

The Minority SafePack Initiative (MSPI) is a European Citizens’ Initiative advocating for the promotion and protection of persons belonging to autochthonous national minorities and language groups in the EU. Its successful international signature collection campaign was coordinated by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN). The MSPI collected 1,123,422 validated signatures and passed the national threshold in 11 Member States.

The Public Hearing will be streamed live on the European Parliament’s website. More information and link to the live coverage  

The broadcast will be available in the following languages: English, Spanish, German, Greek, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Czech and Dutch

More on the Minority SafePack Initiative

The Legislative Proposals of the MSPI