Last obstacle to minority rights initiative removed

The last obstacle has been removed in the way of the European Union citizens’ initiative on minority rights dubbed Minority SafePack since the number of certified signatures in support of the scheme has exceeded one million, a government official said on Tuesday.

“This is a great success concerning the rights of the continent’s indigenous minorities,” Árpád János Potápi, state secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, said about the signature drive conducted in all the 28 EU member states.

Potápi expressed thanks to the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) which launched the initiative and Hungary’s Rákóczi Association, which coordinated the action in Hungary.

The Minority SafePack initiative includes proposals for the protection and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity.

The organisers had until April 3 to collect at least one million supporting signatures.

FUEN said in a statement on Monday that national authorities in all 28 EU member states have verified the signed statements of support and validated a total number of 1,128,385 signatures. It is now also certified that the Minority SafePack Initiative managed to reach the national threshold in 11 member states: Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Spain, Denmark, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Italy, the statement added.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/MinoritySafePack

Source: MTI