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Following the European Commission’s refusal to have a dialogue on the Minority SafePack Initiative, the initiators of the successful European Citizens’ Initiative will wait until the new European Commission is established following next year’s elections for the European Parliament.
FUEN President Loránt Vincze, Representative of the Citizens’ Committee Hans Heinrich Hansen and Hunor Kelemen, the President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) had addressed a letter to the EC at the beginning of October, asking for a preliminary discussion before presenting the 1,128,385 signatures for the Initiative. They were looking for insurances that the Commission is willing to take steps in order to create a set of legal acts for the protection of national minorities based on the Minority SafePack Initiative.
In his answer, while congratulating on collecting the signatures for the European Initiative, EC First Vice-President Frans Timmermans says he would „be happy to meet” the initiators only after they had submitted the initiative to the Commission.
“The refusal to have a face-to-face meeting with the representatives of one million European citizens’ voice is unworthy to the European Commission. We asked only for an innocent meeting between citizens and the guardian of the treaties. The answer is a political one of the Commission in place and shows that we were right in being sceptical about the EC’s good intentions regarding minority rights and their will in making the European Citizens’ Initiative a working tool for direct democracy in Europe” – said FUEN President Loránt Vincze.
As the rules of procedure do not specify a deadline in presenting the validated signatures to the European Commission, the FUEN and the initiators are determined to wait until the new Commission will be in place, following next May’s European elections.
