The FUEN Congress focused on the infringements on minority rights in Eastern Europe

The 62nd Congress of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) in Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg, Romania concluded on Saturday with the Assembly of Delegates.

In a Manifesto, FUEN welcomes the decision of the European Commission to register the Minority SafePack Initiative and believes that the situation of the European autochthonous national minorities, nationalities, and ethnic communities, regional and linguistic groups cannot be considered the internal affairs of individual Member States. It is FUEN’s conviction that minority protection standards have to be established in the EU.

The Manifesto, adopted by the FUEN Assembly of Delegates, states, that it is especially important to elaborate and apply support measures in the case of the small minorities and linguistic groups without a kin-state, which cannot ensure adequate conditions for the survival of their language and culture on their own. Sharing best practices within the EU has to be extended to the area of minority protection and regional arrangements as well, and we need to start a dialogue with the majority – states the document. FUEN is counting on the financial and structural support of our members, regions and partners, as well as of private persons and institutions sensitive to the issue of minorities.

In the coming weeks the organisation will form a working group with the task to elaborate a detailed strategy and schedule for the European petition campaign. We intend to start the massive collection of signatures on paper and online in September in all countries of Europe.

FUEN asks individuals, public personalities and civil society organisations sympathetic to the Minority SafePack Initiative to be the ambassadors of our cause. We ask the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and other European institutions, the legislatures and governments of Member States, the legislatures and governments on regional and local level, to support the petition campaign for the Minority SafePack Initiative in every possible way, to be our partners. We ask the European Commission to initiate legal acts in the areas concerned after the completion of the petition campaign.

Solidarity among the European minorities goes beyond borders of the EU, therefore FUEN will enable an online support tool for signatures from non-EU states.

In a Resolution, FUEN condemned the fact that the Greek authorities arrested and exiled the leader of the Turkish minority organisation, the Rhodes, Kos and the Dodacanese Turks Culture and Solidarity Association (ROISDER). FUEN calls upon Greece to stop discriminating and intimidating the Turkish community, to grant them autonomy in matters regarding education and religion, and to treat Turks and Greeks equally.

At the proposal of the Arman minority organisation from Romania ("The Arman Community from Romania  / Comunitatea Arman din România") the FUEN adopted a resolution asking the Romanian government to recognize the Arman as a national minority, to guarantee the necessary tools needed to protect their linguistic, cultural, religious and intellectual heritage, to abolish the law defining Arman as Romanians, to publish data regarding their real number, and to broadcast Arman content on public radio and television. 

The FUEN Assembly of Delegates calls upon Albania to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, broadcast Macedonian content on public television, grant financial aid for Macedonian cultural and educational activities, and facilitate education in their mother tongue to Macedonians living in settlements with a significant number of members of the minority community, as well as to guarantee the possibility to use their mother tongue when dealing with the authorities, in settlements where they reach the threshold of 20%.

In a Resolution, FUEN urges the European states – among them Romania due to the Roma community of Patarât – to find answers to the forcible expulsion issues of the members of the Roma community, and make sure that these families have acceptable living conditions. FUEN urges Europe to respect the basic human rights of the people belonging to the Roma minority.

The Presidium of FUEN gave special attention to the minorities living in Ukraine. In a Resolution they stress that the building-up of the Ukrainian identity and linguistic heritage and promoting minority rights do not exclude each other. FUEN drew attention to the attempts to curtail education in minority languages, minority rights, media broadcasting in minority languages, and to ban double citizenship. The FUEN Assembly of Delegates urges the Ukrainian authorities to support the consistent implementation and further promotion of the existing legislative provisions on national minorities, especially in the field of language rights and education, to refrain from any attempt to limit the use of minority rights and to guarantee the full application of internal and international commitments instead. The FUEN Assembly of Delegates stresses, that the Ukrainan state ought to hear the opinion of the minority organisation representatives before adopting a law that affects these communities, and it urges the state to conduct a constructive and permanent dialogue with and amongst the minorities in Ukraine. It urges the reestablishment of the specialized governmental body that handled issues regarding to the protection of national minorities, to combat the growth of intolerance and prevent hate crimes driven by racism, xenophobia or anti-Semitism.

FUEN also calls on the European Union and the Council of Europe to closely monitor the Ukrainian authorities and constantly remind the country’s government about its commitments regarding the application of the European minority protection regulations as well as support the country in achieving the goals mentioned above. The FUEN draws the attention to the situation of minorities in Crimea, asking for the acknowledgement of the Tatar community living there as an indigenous national minority, and for the establishment of the Tatar Republic of Crimea.

The FUEN Assembly of Delegates adopted a Resolution regarding the Hungarian minority in Romania and Slovakia. The document addresses issues related to the use of the mother tongue, and it was elaborated by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), the Hungarian Civic Party in Romania (MPP), and the Party of the Hungarian Community of Slovakia (MKP). The document states that though the bulk of European states ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the law application methodology has not yet been elaborated in many countries. The interpretation of the Charter is not what it should be, and the result is that state legislation forbids everything the Charter doesn’t provide in detail.  

The document urges minority language rights, it urges states that have ratified the Charter to observe the provisions of it, and guarantee minorities the right to an education in the mother tongue and the use of the mother tongue in healthcare and administration.  In the case of Romania the FUEN Assembly of Delegates calls for lowering the language right threshold from 20 to 10 percent and the introduction of an alternative threshold.