One plus one is more than two – Joining together in the European institutions for minorities

Invited by Kinga Gál MEP, Anna Magyar Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Self-Government of the Council of Europe, member of the Committee of the Regions, was the guest of the Intergroup for Traditional Minorities this year’s first meeting.

Anna Magyar presented the latest positive developments in the European institutions that join together the European local and regional self-governments in the field of protection of minority languages and the rights of national minorities. She called attention to the fact that, if they are involved in the protection of national minorities in different European institutions, they share their knowledge and experience and lead to concrete results. The problems of national communities can be raised more powerfully, because in this area ‘one plus one is more than two’. She explained how important it would be for the relevant national minorities to be included in the country reports on the different European forums. The work of active politicians at regional levels can also be incorporated into higher-level decisions, as was the case with the Ukrainian law on education.

Kinga Gál, co-chair of the Intergroup, said: “It is important to keep track of what is happening in the various European institutions in the field of minority protection so that we can work together and build on each other’s achievements. In this Sizifus work of the protection of indigenous national minorities, we can only move that way from one to two. If one of the doors is closed in front of us, we will try to open another door. It’s a fight we can not even give up if we do not see success right away. ”

At the meeting led by Kinga Gál it had been announced that a special committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will hold its 2018 Summer Meeting in Bálványos, Transylvania, in conjunction with a thematic conference on Multilingualism in Local Governments. This was evaluated by the participants as an important step forward.

At the end of the meeting, Kinga Gál called on all Members to do all that more and more people in their regions sign the Minority Safepack Citizens’ Initiative. That is the only way to gather the necessary one million signatures from the seven Member States of the Union by the March deadline.