Loránt Vincze: Minority protection has reached stagnation on both levels: domestic and European

Mr Loránt Vincze, Vice President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) was present at a round table discussion about minority issues on Tuesday morning at the European Parliament in Brussels entitled Minority rights in theory and practice. The main topics were the challenges faced by the autochthonous minorities in language use and education.

“Many times we stated that the minority question is still far from being solved in Eastern Europe. Regarding minority rights, we have noticed stagnation and even refusal of the Slovakian and Romanian authorities to apply their own laws in this matter. In the case of Romania, recently several courts rulings were taken against language rights and collective interests, be it inscriptions on monuments or symbols of the community” – commented Mr Vincze, the Vice President of FUEN, at the discussion about the rights of Hungarians. Several representatives of the Hungarian civil society from Slovakia were also present at the event, on behalf of the following organisations: the You’re Important! movement, The Movement for Bilingual South-Slovakia, Young Independents and the youth section (Via Nova) of the Hungarian Community Party (MKP). The event was held by MKP’s MEP Pál Csáky, under the auspices of the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions. All three co-chairs of the Minority Intergroup participated as speakers: Kinga Gál from Hungary, the Catalan Jordi Sebastià and the Swedish speaking Finn Nils Torvalds.

According to FUEN Vice President Vincze, if minority protection were a sport, it would probably be a noble martial art with endless rounds between the opponents, with small occasional victories, but disappointing in the long run. Mr Vincze presented the two main objectives of the FUEN: promoting dialogue between majority and minorities, and creating a European framework for minority protection. He also added “From time to time we have to admit that we either do not see or do not realise if awareness has become higher than before or if it has not. However, as a responsible civil organisation, FUEN has no choice but to continue its work with further initiatives and proposals, promoting its causes among the European institutions, using all possible opportunities.”

Finally, Mr Loránt Vincze quoted a friend of the ethnic communities, the former German MEP Hans-Gert Pöttering, who stated the following once: “If there is a problem in any EU member state, then it is a problem of the entire Union.” According to the Vice President of the FUEN, this means that if 40 million Europeans belonging to different national minorities raise their problems and ask the EU to protect their linguistic and cultural diversity, then their claim should be heard and dealt with. He emphasized that minority rights are part of human rights and that the EU should not use double standards.

At the end of the conference, Cecilia Wikström, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions, received the petition of the You’re Important! movement and The Movement for Bilingual South-Slovakia, asking for bilingualism at train stations in Slovakia where there is a significant number of Hungarians.

Photo: felvidek.ma