The petition campaign for the Minority SafePack Initiative has officially been launched in Austria today

Under the motto My language is part of the European diversity the petition campaign for the Minority Safepack Initiative has been officially launched today in Wien, Austria. The event was marked by a press conference held on the matter by FUEN President Vincze Lóránt, Luis Durnwalder, the former Governor of South-Tyrol, FUEN Vice-president Daniel Alfreider, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austrian diplomat of Carinthian Slovene origin Valentin Inzko, who is currently serving as and the representatives of the Burgenland Croats and Carinthian Slovenes. In the upcoming period the organisers of the local campaign will tour Austria with a pavilion under which this important subject, the Minority SafePack will be presented and signatures will be gathered in support of the initiative.

All six autochthonous national minorities of Austria support this cause actively championed by the South-Tyrol Region. Several important organisations in the country, such as the  Österreichischen Volksgruppenzentrum and the Austrian high school student’s organisation undertook to promote the initiative in order to secure as many signatures as possible – stated Gabriella Novak-Karall in the name of organisers of the Austrian petition campaign.

FUEN President Vincze Loránt thanked the organisers of the local petition campaign for their enthusiasm and underlined three important aspects of the Minority SafePack Initiative. „The Minority SafePack Initiative is an endeavour for the future of Europe, a new Europe, where national minority communities and majority communities will have equal rights. It is the hope of European citizens belonging to a national minority that the European Commission will no longer need to state that minority issues fall manifestly outside its framework. Last, but not least it is a project of solidarity with the unrecognised minorities of Europe, and a strife to secure equal rights for them“ – stated Vinzce Lórant.

Former South-Tyrolean Governor Luis Durnwalder stressed, that minorities only ask for the same rights the majority communities enjoy. "Majority communities must understand that basic human rights need to be guaranteed for minorities also, that these communities have a right to their cultures, to use of their mother tongue and to representation in the various decision making and legislative bodies" – he said.

Daniel Alfreider spoke about how the Ladin and German speaking people of South Tyrol, after 40 years of conflicts and struggle, managed to secure the rights they enjoy today. "This initiative aims to set a certain standard for other minorities in Europe, it aims to show them good practices for preserving their culture, their language, and it shows a way for promoting European diversity" – he said adding that it is important for minorities in Europe to work together in order to put the minority issue on the agenda of the European Commission.  

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austrian diplomat of Carinthian Slovene origin Valentin Inzko spoke about cultural and linguistic diversity, a core value of Europe stating: "There are over 50 million Europeans who belong to a national minority community. Some of these communities are rather large, and some are very small, and they do not yet have a common voice. This is why I support this initiative, because through it minorities can have a common voice. We speak of a European Union, a single market, one currency and common values. Why should we not speak of equal minority rights in all of Europe"?