![Minority SafePack Initiative - Logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Minority_SafePack_Initiative_-_Logo.jpg)
Minority SafePack – one million signatures for diversity in Europe is an ongoing
European Citizens' Initiative
The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling "EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies", introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. The ...
on minority rights in the EU, sponsored by
FUEN.
Content
The proposals registered by the European Commission were summarised as follows (by the initiators)
*EU Recommendation for the protection and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity
*Funding programmes for small linguistic communities,
*The creation of a Language Diversity Centre
*The objectives of EU’s regional development funds to include the protection of national minorities and the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity
*Research about the added value of minorities to our societies and Europe
*Approximating equality for stateless minorities e.g. Roma
*A single European copyright law, so that services and broadcast can be enjoyed in the mother tongue
*Freedom of service and reception of audio-visual content in the minority regions
*Block exemption of regional (state) support for minority culture, media and cultural heritage conservation.
The proposals rejected by the European Commission were:
*A Council directive, regulation or decision, for strengthening within the EU the place of citizens belonging to a national minority, with the aim of ensuring that their concerns are taken into consideration in the election of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
;
*Effective measures to address discrimination and to promote equal treatment, including for national minorities, in particular through a revision of the existing Council directives on the subject of equal treatment.
Litigation
The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
initially refused to register the initiative, in 2013. The authors (who include
Hunor Kelemen
Hunor Kelemen (born 18 October 1967) is a Romanian politician and Hungarian language writer. The current president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), he has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies since 2000, a ...
,
Anke Spoorendonk
Anke Spoorendonk (born 21 September 1947 in Busdorf) is a German politician from the South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW). From 12 June 2012, until 28 June 2017 she was the Minister of Justice, Culture and European Affairs in the state governm ...
,
Karl-Heinz Lambertz
Karl-Heinz Lambertz (born 4 June 1952) is a Belgian politician holding a master's degree in law from the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) with an additional specialisation in German law (University of Heidelberg). Lambertz was president of the ...
,
Luis Durnwalder
Luis Durnwalder (born 23 September 1941) is an Italian politician, former governor of the autonomous province of South Tyrol from 1989 until 2014, and former president and vice-president of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, in Northern Italy.
Bio ...
and
Valentin Inzko
Valentin Inzko (born 22 May 1949) is an Austrian diplomat who served as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2009 to 2021. He also served as the European Union Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2009 to 2011 ...
) have appealed the refusal in court, where they were joined by Hungary and the Commission - by Slovakia and Romania. The
General Court annulled the Commission decision in February 2017. In March 2017, the Commission decided to launch collection of signatures for 9 of 11 proposals initially included in the initiative.
Collection of signatures
Collection of signatures (both online and offline) began in April 2017, and continued until 3 April 2018.
The initiative has been supported by the
Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion
The Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion (german: Europaregion Tirol–Südtirol–Trentino; it, Euregio Tirolo–Alto Adige–Trentino) is a Euroregion formed by three different regional authorities in Austria and Italy: the Aust ...
, by the
Basque Parliament
The Basque Parliament (Basque: ''Eusko Legebiltzarra'', Spanish: ''Parlamento Vasco'') is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible.
The Parliament mee ...
and the
Parliament of Navarre
The Parliament of Navarre (Spanish ''Parlamento de Navarra'', Basque ''Nafarroako Parlamentua'') or also known as ''Cortes de Navarra'' (in Spanish) or ''Nafarroako Gorteak'' (in Basque) is the Navarre autonomous unicameral parliament.
Functions ...
; an invitation to sign it was published at the web portal of the
Parliament of the German-speaking Community
The Parliament of the German-speaking Community (german: Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft or PDG) is the legislative assembly of the German-speaking Community of Belgium located in Eupen.
The most important tasks of the Parliament of ...
of Belgium. As reported by FUEN, it has also been supported by the President of the European Parliament and the Hungarian Parliament.
As of 4 April 2018, the initiative has been supported online by 771,089 EU citizens (the unionwide threshold is 1,000,000). The necessary statewide threshold has been achieved by online signatures in nine member states (in Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Denmark, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia, and Slovenia), with seven having been needed.
Counting both online and offline signatures, the petition has been signed by 1,215,789 EU citizens. The threshold was reached in eleven countries, namely Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Denmark, Slovakia, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Italy. On 25 July, it was confirmed that over 1.1 million signatures have been recognised as valid.
Consideration
The European Parliament has expressed support for the initiative in December 2020, as did the Bundestag in November.
Koalitionsantrag zur Umsetzung des „Minority SafePack“ angenommen
/ref> However no new legal acts have been proposed, the Commission refers to already existing policies that have been amended and will further support the goals of the initiative. It emphasises that diversity is ‘at the heart of the Union’ and one of the core principles the EU was founded on.
References
{{reflist
External links
Website of the initiative
Website of collecting signatures for the initiative
Court of Justice of the European Union case law
Hungary–Romania relations
Hungary–Slovakia relations
Initiatives
Minority rights
Politics of the European Union