LMP plans support for European initiative on protecting national regions

Green opposition LMP is planning to put forward a proposal for a parliamentary resolution to promote the collection of signatures for a European initiative on protecting national regions, group leader László Lóránt Keresztes said on Wednesday.

LMP will call a seven-party consultation of party group leaders on the matter, he told a press conference.

It took seven years of legal efforts by the Szekler National Council to get the opportunity to collect signatures, and the initiative dubbed European Citizens’ Initiative for the Equality of the Regions and Sustainability of the Regional Cultures was launched last spring, he said.

The aim is to convince the European Commission to introduce legislation that will make cohesion policy pay special attention to regions with national, ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics that are different from those of the surrounding regions, he added. The initiative has been welcomed by parties in Hungary that “understand the Hungarian national idea”, seeing it as a tool to promote policies geared towards Hungarian communities abroad, he said.

For the initiative to be successful, at least one million supporting signatures are needed from seven member states, he said.

So far, no significant progress has been made, he added.

Keresztes said he would also ask for support from European green parties because the issue concerned fundamental European values.

• Romanian troops having army exercise in Szeklerland

Source: MTI