What’s next for the Minority SafePack Initiative?

The European petition campaign for the MSPI was a success: we have gathered 1,320,000 statements of support and we have reached the threshold in 11 Member States (Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Lithuania, Italy before the April 3 2018 deadline (1 million signatures and 7 Member States are required for a European Citizens’ Initiative)

By 8th of May 2018 the Citizens’ Committee, the FUEN and local organisers have handed over the signatures to the competent national authorities in all 28 EU Member States

The competent national authorities validated 1,123,422 statements of support. The national threshold was officcially reached in 11 Member States: Romania, Hungary, Spain, Slovakia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia, Latvia and Italy.

The statements of support were registered online at the European Commission on 10 January 2020. From this day on the European Commission has a timeframe of six months to organise a public hearing in the European Parliament and then let its position known regarding the Minority SafePack Initiative.

On 5 February the Citizens’ Committee, the FUEN Presidium and experts presented their legislative proposals to the European Commission. Read the proposals HERE.

The Public Hearing in the European Parliament, scheduled to take place on 23 March 2020 has been postponed to a later date due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Subsequently, the six-month period the European Commission had at its disposal has also been extended.

Although we are very prouf of the success of the petition campaign, and we consider it to be a big step towards reaching our goals, it doesn’t mean that our job is done. Our final goal is to have a European framework for the protection of autocthonous, historical minorities, nationalities and language groups. In the next period we will focus on lobbying and making the decision makers see that this is a legitimate desire that the minorities of Europe agree upon.