Reprezenting Hungarians living outside the borders of Hungary in the European Parliament
The Foreign Affairs and Diaspora committee of the Hungarian Parliament held an extraordinary meeting on the 3rd of December with the attendance of the Hungarian MEPs from Hungary and neighboring countries. The committee discussed the issues of the representation of the interest of the Hungarian living outside Hungary in the European Parliament.
As the host of the event, the chairman of the committee, Mihály Balla asked, proposed and promised regular meetings between the MEPs from Hungary and other states. He also stressed a major goal of the upcoming Hungarian Presidency: conciliation based on values is indispensable to tackle the issues of minority language rights, autonomy and demographic change.
DAHR’s MEP Csaba Sógor welcomed the unifying program of the Hungarian Presidency. With consideration to the examples of Slovakia and Romania, the MEP urged that closer attention needs to be paid to the implementation of minority rights in the case of candidates Serbia and Ukraine, since new member states tend to show a lower level of tolerance after their adherence.
The Hungarian MEP from Transylvania also presented the chances and opportunities of minority politics in Brussels mentioning some of his more successful projects in the EP: the presentation of Transylvanian wines, potatoes, special regions and the projection of a commemorative film about the Bolyai University of Cluj. Thus, he turned the attention of the decision makers to Transylvanian values and said that it is worthwhile to spend resources on similar diplomatic means. The MEP also mentioned the question of autonomy saying that it has not been forgotten at all more so, attempts were made to urge to use it within various specialized policies in order to eradicate discrimination.
- We may be able to give greater importance to the question of minority rights in the EU and open up opportunities for their implementation into specialized policies. But we need dialogue, conciliation and solidarity in order to achieve this – said Csaba Sógor.
DAHR’s MEP Csaba Sógor welcomed the unifying program of the Hungarian Presidency. With consideration to the examples of Slovakia and Romania, the MEP urged that closer attention needs to be paid to the implementation of minority rights in the case of candidates Serbia and Ukraine, since new member states tend to show a lower level of tolerance after their adherence.
The Hungarian MEP from Transylvania also presented the chances and opportunities of minority politics in Brussels mentioning some of his more successful projects in the EP: the presentation of Transylvanian wines, potatoes, special regions and the projection of a commemorative film about the Bolyai University of Cluj. Thus, he turned the attention of the decision makers to Transylvanian values and said that it is worthwhile to spend resources on similar diplomatic means. The MEP also mentioned the question of autonomy saying that it has not been forgotten at all more so, attempts were made to urge to use it within various specialized policies in order to eradicate discrimination.
- We may be able to give greater importance to the question of minority rights in the EU and open up opportunities for their implementation into specialized policies. But we need dialogue, conciliation and solidarity in order to achieve this – said Csaba Sógor.
