- Communiqués de presse
„The autochthonous minorities support the Minority SafePack Initiative. It is a meaningful project even for those minorities which are satisfied with their current state, such as the minorities from the German-Danish Borderregion. It could be a reassurance from the EU that their rights could no be taken away regardless of political changes in their Member States. There is nobody else on the market with a different proposal or a counterargument for what we propose, thus we have the support of 50 million European citizens” – stated the President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities, Loránt Vincze, at a press briefing with the editor in chiefs of the minority newspapers from the German-Danish border region. Gwyn Nissen from ‘Der Nordschleswiger’, German newspaper in Denmark and Jørgen Møllekær from ‘Flensborg Avis’, Danish newspaper in Germany, FUEN Vice President Dieter Paul Küssner and Executive Director Éva Pénzes took part in the discussion on Wednesday, the 5th of October at the office of the House of Minorities in Flensburg.
The FUEN President reminded, that there is a full consensus among member organisations regarding the support for the Citizen’s Initiative as it has been the case since 2011, when it was first discussed at the FUEN Congress. Mr. Vincze explained that during the summer the FUEN managed to secure the financial support for the campaign, to develop material based on European stories, to launch a new website and to build up a team to coordinate the campaign. „We are now at full speed with the campaign” – the FUEN President stated.
Vice President Dieter Paul Küssner highlighted that the MSPI campaign team will coordinate the work with the member organisations and will provide assistance, motivation, inspiration, and designs for the campaign, but it is the member organisations’ duty to organise their own campaign teams and to coordinate the ground-level work. „The Danish and Frisian speaking communities, the Sinti and Roma from the Schleswig-Holstein region will also benefit from the MSPI. It is therefore also their responsibility and in their interest to run this campaign” – said Mr. Küssner.
During the meeting the newspaper representatives expressed their support for the MSPI and also took interrest in the practical aspects of the collection campaign. The FUEN President explained that every member organisation has the liberty to choose the period which is best for collecting signatures, adding that his home organisation from Transylvania, the RMDSZ, has already started a door-to-door campaign, gathering 20.000 signatures in a mere week in Romania. Their aim is to collect 250.000 signatures by December.
