Pál Csáky, SMK-MKP, MEP, welcomed the most important minority protection document of the Council of Europe, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages today at the sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. ‘More recently, we have been talking a great deal about the fact that democratic principles must be respected in the European Union. However, as if there are areas where we would be willing to tolerate the dislike of Member States. Such an area is the situation of indigenous minorities.
We are asking the European Commission, namely Commissioner Frans Timmermans, to incorporate the most important minority protection documents of the Council of Europe into the internal legal order of the European Union with binding effects. Especially the most important one of them, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages which is celebrating its 25-year anniversary.
As the protection of the rights of indigenous minorities is not satisfactory for example in Slovakia, that I am a citizen of. There is a lack of positive attitude, the application of the Charter is not satisfactory and the protection of minorities is inadequate. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that I can give this speech in my mother tongue here, in the European Parliament, and I could have done so in my country 30 years ago, during the years of the Communist dictatorship. But today, I do not have the right to do so in Slovakia which is a Member State of the EU, and that, unfortunately, constitutes a step backwards even in relation to the former situation,’ said the MEP of SMK-MKP in his speech.
(www.csakypal.eu, 13 June 2017)
