EDF calls the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to strengthen the protection and monitoring of minority rights

FUEN’s European Dialogue Forum (EDF) visited the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg on 27-28th June. FUEN’s delegation held consultations with members of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly from Denmark, Germany, Ukraine, Hungary, and Spain.

A focal point of the discussions was a more prominent featuring of the topic of minority protection in the work of the PACE.  The EDF pointed out to the PACE members the weakening of the monitoring mechanisms of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), the need to re-evaluate the existing minority protection standards and to meaningfully involve minorities‘ experts and civil society in this process.

The EDF members have also discussed how to proceed with the endorsement of the Minority SafePack Initiative on the national level in the Council of Europe region and discussed with individual parliamentarians consultative mechanisms between minorities and state institutions in place in the mentioned countries.

The delegation also observed the debates at the PACE‘s morning session on 28th June.

The delegation consisted of FUEN Vice Presidents Olivia Schubert and Bernard Gaida, YEN President Louis Albert-Becker and FUEN Brussels staff members Kateryna Haertel and Johan Häggman.