Equal treatment should not be a privilege in the European Union
"The situation and problems of European linguistic and ethnic minorities need more attention in the EU, especially if we consider that equal treatment is not a privilege but a right of every European citizen" - among others, this is a thought that is vigorously sustained by MEP Csaba Sógor and included in a new Opinion of the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament, of which he was the rapporteur. The LIBE Opinion also urges a more effective application of the European Citizens’ Initiative.
European citizenship and the rights that result from it - like the right of free movement of persons, the right to engage in work, the right to education in EU countries and the right to consular protection - are fundamental in the European Union. The European Commission is preparing an analysis and evaluation of these rights every three years in which the priorities of the coming years are also defined. The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) entrusted MEP Csaba Sógor the Opinion on the 2017 annual report. The document prepared by the politician from Transylvania, accepted on 7 November by the Committee, draws the attention multiple times to the importance of minority protection.
"With the support of the LIBE Committee, I succeeded in drafting an opinion, which once again stresses that even though 8% of the European citizens belong to an autochthonous minority and 10% speak a regional or a minority language, the Union has still no legal framework to protect them. As a result, there is no uniform treatment of ethnic and linguistic minorities in the different member states" - explained Sógor.
The politician of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania thinks that Minority Safepack is one important tool that has to be used when demanding such a protection framework. "We are getting ready to collect 1 million signatures in favour of minority protection and put it on the table of the European Commission. Now is the time to back this initiative with every parliamentary document possible to prove that the European Parliament is on our side" - stated the MEP.
