FUEN President Loránt Vincze: European protection for our values

„If it needs to be said a thousand times, I will say it a thousand times: linguistic and cultural diversity makes Europe richer, not poorer. It adds value to every region, every Member State and Europe as a whole.” – stated Loránt Vincze at the closing ceremony of a folklore festival organized in Transylvania.

The FUEN president said he was glad to see, that even Sorbs had come all the way from Germany in order to participate at the local folkloric event. This summit is a meeting of different cultures, dialogue and way of understanding each other. “Our generation holds the values and traditions of centuries past. It is now our turn to promote them and pass them on to generations to come.” – stressed Vincze adding: “we would all be poorer if a dance or a song got lost in time. We need to protect this heritage, and not all Member States grant this protection. This is why we need an EU level framework to deal with this issue.”

The president of the FUEN urged every participant at the event to support the Minority SafePack by signing for this European Citizen’s Inititatve. „We have seen many cases where a minority protection law was not applied, or someone tried to take these rights away from minorities. There is now an unprecedented solidarity among the minorities of Europe, and this could achieve an EU level guarantee for these rights” – he pointed out.

Loránt Vincze reminded the participants of the event: „The Romanian Government decided to take legal action against the European Commission and its decision of taking the Minority SafePack Citizen’s Initiative into account. This is a gesture against the state’s own minorities, against the 50 million European citizens who belong to a national minority community and the other Member States who support this cause. Representatives of the Romanian government have repeatedly stated that the issues of the Hungarian minority living here are handled in an exemplary manner. This action makes us question the validity of this statement.” – concluded the president of the Federal Union of European Nationalities.