Conference of the Intergroup for Traditional National Minorities

During the first session, Kinga Gál (MEP) tried to unfold the contradiction between a proactive external minority policy stance and internal minority policy. She also put the question of whether "Should policies toward the ‘traditional’ (national) minorities and ‘new’ minorities (relatively new arrivals with no historic ties to the home country) and the specific issue of the Roma be harmonized?"

The other presenters, Attila MARKÓ, György SCHÖPFLIN, Katrin SAKS, Edit BAUER, Tatjana ŽDANOKA, Bogdan AURESCU, István SZENT-IVÁNYI and others tried to answer such questions as:

What will it take to produce a more coherent and effective EU normative framework on minorities and minority languages? Is there a connection between a future EU minority policy and the EU Constitutional Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and other minority rights related EU documents? Is there a way to advance the implementation of the already existing norms? How should an EU normative framework on minority rights protection relate to the wider Council of Europe and OSCE existing mechanisms?