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The petition campaign for the Minority SafePack European Citizen’s Initiative has been launched on Friday evening at the Bánffy castle in Bonțida, Bonchida. Over 400 people arriving from all corners of Europe participated at the event organised as part of the Congress of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN).
Hans Heinrich Hansen, leader of the Citizen’s Committee began his speech by reading an excerpt from the letter by Frans Timmermans, written on the fourth of April this year, in which the vice president of the European Committee notifies the initiators that the MSPI has been registered. "I hope the optimism that led us this far will prevail, and I hope every member organisation of the FUEN will be able to muster the resources, the solidarity needed for us to reach our goal.” – stated the former president of FUEN.
President of the RMDSZ Kelemen Hunor said: “We believe that the 60 million European Citizens, who belong to a minority community, deserve more. We believe our cultures enrich the states we live in, and we want to take away nothing from the majority communities. We are in the right, we want to do what’s right! We believe in solidarity! This is what makes us stronger; this is why we will succeed!”
"Hungarians in Romania want to feel at home in Europe, even if a part of society is intolerant towards multilingualism and the diversity that we, minorities, represent.” – stated FUEN president Vincze Loránt.
South Tyrolean vice president of the organisation, Daniel Alfreider stated: gathering 1 million signatures is no easy task. Every one of us needs to convince people in their own country to show solidarity. Britta Tästensen, President of the Youth of European Nationalities thinks the MSPI is a sustainable, innovative initiative, which shows future similar projects and example.
Hegedüs Csilla, executive vice president of the RMDSZ was the host of the evening. She stressed that we need partners on our side to convince the governments of European states that minorities are not a threat, but that they enrich society as a whole. “We need to gather 1 million signatures within a year, and the RMDSZ undertook to provide 250.000 of those.”
The signatures were symbolically written on a large map of Europe to show that FUEN is counting on every European state during the petition campaign, in order to gather one million signatures from at least 7 Member States assuring the success of the Minority SafePack Initiative which will lay the ground work for an EU level legislative framework to protect minority rights. The initiators were the first to sign the map followed by the FUEN presidency, the representatives of the Romanian member organisations, and the representatives of the 50 organisations present at the congress. The coordinated European Union level petition campaign will be launched in September.
The Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) is the largest umbrella organization representing 100 million European citizens belonging to a national minority. The 62nd Congress of FUEN is taking place on the 17-21 of May at Grand Hotel Napoca in Cluj-Napoca, Kolozsvár, Klausenburg, Romania. Representatives of 50 member organisations, over 300 delegates and guests are attending the event covered by over 50 journalists. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, the RMDSZ is the host of the event.
