The Intergroup for national minorities of the European Parliament – in the parliamentary period 2009-2014 – was established. The cross-party working platform has been in existence since 1984 and consists of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) that work for the interests of the autochthonous minorities in Europe.

In their last meeting before the Christmas recess the MEPs decided to split the parliamentary term in two and to have two presidencies, each with two chairmen.

The first half of the period the presidency will be taken by Kinga Gál (EPP) of the Conservatives together with Carl Haglund (ALDE) of the Liberals. The second half Csaba Tabajdi (S&D) of the Social-Democrats – already president from 2004-2009 – will chair the Intergroup together with a representative of the Greens/EFA.

The decision of the Conservative group to speak out against the establishment of the Intergroup for national minorities has caused amazement in the European Parliament. Three groups in the Parliament must approve, before an Intergroup can start its work. The Social-Democrats, Greens and Liberals voted in favour – but the proposal did not get enough support in the EPP.

Hans Heinrich Hansen, president of FUEN, states: “we were very amazed that the EPP did not find an internal majority for the establishment of the Intergroup. Different sources meanwhile assured to us that it is not about turning down the subject of minorities as such. However, because only a limited number of Intergroups can be established, the minority-group has been regarded by the MEPs as less important. In our opinion this is a fully wrong signal and it shows the difficulty to anchor the issue of the minorities in the Parliament. We will have to continue pointing out the significance of the issue of minorities and we hope that this bumpy start for the Intergroup will not slow down the results in the coming parliamentary period”, according to the FUEN-president.

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