Csaba Sógor: Some Member States in breach of the Treaty on the European Union
Freedom of speech is one of the fundamental values of democracy; therefore there cannot be taboo or uncomfortable subjects in the European Parliament that we are forbidden to speak of – stated Csaba Sógor in response to last week's incidents late at night on March 7th during the Strasbourg plenary session.
The international media has largely reported last week’s incident, when MEPs and assistants of the Greek far-right disrupted a conference on minority rights in Greece that MEP Sógor organized.
"It does not cause much surprise that there are democratically elected representatives - here in this parliament - who deny the existence of a national minority community in their countries, and who believe that talking about their situation and drawing attention to their rights being infringed upon constitutes an attack on their country. What is sadder, however, is that such views are also articulated by other representatives from mainstream parties", stated Csaba Sógor in Strasbourg on Monday evening.
"I like to think that the second article of the Treaty on the European Union, according to which the Union is founded on human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to national minority communities still applies", stressed the RMDSZ MEP. In his view there are Member States who infringe upon these rights and the Commission should not only monitor compliance with macroeconomic indicators and food safety regulations, but should also deal with the respect for fundamental rights.
