Minority issues on the agenda of the European Parliament’s Paneuropean Working Group
This month's topic of the Paneuropean Working Group of the European Parliament concerned the issue of national minorities. Austrian MEP Paul Rübig, president of the working group entrusted RMDSZ MEP Csaba Sógor to present the situation of traditional minorities in Europe at the meeting in Strasburg on the 13th of January 2015.
In his speech entitled Minorities and social cohesion in Europe MEP Csaba Sógor detailed the European agreements and treaties which contain recommendations regarding minority protection rights. The RMDSZ politician explained: the Member states should be encouraged to ratify and implement the documents adopted by the European Council and stressed that elaborating a European-level, comprehensive strategy is also important in this matter.
“There is a need for a Minority Strategy similarly to the Rroma Strategy of the EU in order to encourage Member states to take measures on the national level aimed to protect minority rights” - pointed out Csaba Sógor, adding that the EU should elaborate a monitoring mechanism in order to follow up on these specific measures. In his opinion it is also vital that the EU requests that the Copenhagen Criteria are not only a prerequisite of joining the EU, but that they are also met after the accession of the Member States. In this sense, he gave examples of member states issuing discriminatory language laws or implementing measures infringing upon the use of minorities' symbols.
Sógor also argued that the civil society and nongovernmental organisations have an important role in minority protection issues. The participants agreed that the NGOs working for the implementation of existing minority rights laws should be supported on both EU and national level. The consensus opinion was that a tangible social cohesion in Europe can only be achieved if all member state will recognise the value of their minorities and will protect their rights.
The Paneuropean Workgroup has been a part of the European Parliament since its foundation by Otto von Habsburg in 1985. It meets on a monthly basis, usually on a Tuesday during the Strasburg plenary session. Subjects on the agenda are not only political, but also economic, religious or cultural and in need of a European response. Since 2009 the workgroup is led by a member of the European People's Party, Paul RÜBIG Austrian MEP.
