Minority SafePack – One million signatures for diversity in Europe
minority&MAJORITY

We live in Europe for centuries. We are autochthonous and traditional people, many of us saw borders shifted and live today in minority. It is not a choice, but it is the reality for us. We have chosen to continue to live in our homeland.

Our ancestors created a unique cultural wealth, they spoke their own languages, and followed their own traditions and customs. We aim to preserve and develop our identity, our cultures, and our languages.

We speak our mother tongue, and we want to be able to use it in everyday life and in the administration. We wish that our children were able to learn in their mother tongue in schools and to pass it to the next generations.

Different norms and different standards are applied by the states in the field of minority protection: some don’t recognize and disregard the aim of minorities, while others actively promote and protect them. We believe that the situation of European minorities can not be considered solely the internal affair of the states.

We are one hundred million Europeans, fifty million in the EU, members of autochthonous national minorities, nationalities, ethnic communities, regional and linguistic groups. Our objective is to strengthen the Council of Europe’s legal instruments and sanction mechanism. In the EU our goal is to create a EU legal framework on the protection of national minorities and language groups. We have a dream about a society where all languages and communities are equal, respected and cherished.

However, our determination and strength is not enough. We need the majority societies, we need our states and regions, and we need Europe to provide us the tools, which can support us to protect and to develop our cultures and our languages.

Under the umbrella of the Federal Union of European Nationalities 1,128,385 European citizens already joined our cause and started a movement for minority rights. By signing the Minority SafePack Initiative they asked the EU to improve the protection of persons belonging to national and linguistic minorities and strengthen cultural and linguistic diversity in the EU. The signatures of so many European citizens are an empowerment to make our voice heard in the EU institutions, national parliaments and governments, which should not be ignored.

Today, we need much more than that. We need a pact between minorities and majorities to create favorable conditions for linguistic and cultural diversity to thrive, to preserve and promote the identity of the minority communities, to stop their assimilation, to make them feel entirely at home on the territory where they have been living traditionally, to have a say in decisions that affect their lives, and to exercise autonomously their cultural, educational and linguistic rights.

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We ask you to join our movement for minority rights.

We make Europe richer! We offer our cultural heritage, our languages and our traditions to Europe and to the majority societies.

Listen to us without prejudices.

As national minorities and language groups we have the same aspirations as the majority: we want our countries and regions to prosper. No matter our mother tongue or traditions we contribute together to our societies and economies. We all want to live in a better region, a better country and a better Europe.

Help us in becoming EU citizens with equal rights

in the use of our language, mother tongue education and the preservation of culture. Minorities are not a threat for the cohesion of Europe or for the states, instead, in all their diversity they are enriching both society and the state and play a crucial role as bridge builders between nations.

We need to work together on a local, regional and European agenda.

Minority rights will not be achieved without majority support. It is our common struggle. In order to succeed we, decision makers, organizations, volunteers, partners and influencers need to work together.

We aim to put minority rights on the European agenda.

The upcoming European elections offer the right platform for a debate on autochthonous minority rights. We invite European parties and candidates to include in their objectives solutions to our concerns. The citizens belonging to minority communities will support parties and candidates that are committed to our agenda.

Be part of history in the making.

The Minority SafePack Initiative can be one of the most important achievements in the history of the EU, and together, we are the ones who can make it happen.
VIEW THE PACT click here to download
AUSTRIA8.401
BELGIUM928
BULGARIA20.544
CROATIA16.808
CYPRUS35
CZECH REPUBLIC635
DENMARK11.736
ESTONIA587
FINLAND3.759
FRANCE7.295
GERMANY17.493
GREECE2.888
HUNGARY527.686
IRELAND271
ITALY78.396
LATVIA6.661
LITHUANIA18.990
LUXEMBOURG95
MALTA36
NETHERLANDS3.213
POLAND25.422
PORTUGAL110
ROMANIA254.871
SLOVAKIA63.272
SLOVENIA6.168
SPAIN48.626
SWEDEN1.795
UNITED KINGDOM1.664

In the European Union there are

about 50 million people

who belong to a national minority or a
minority language community.

THIS IS ONE OF EUROPE’S BEST KEPT SECRETS

They make a strong contribution to the linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe. Together with other Europeans they want to define the future of Europe; a future in which not only large languages or dominant cultures, but also minorities are taken into account. Therefore they want protection and support for the preservation of their identity. This is what the Minority SafePack Initiative calls for.
Click to unlock the secret!

Minorities make Europe richer!

Sign the petition and help provide a better future for the national
minorities and language communities of Europe!

I want more

The rights of the national and linguistic minorities are not always respected. In many cases their language and culture is endangered. These communities want to have the chance to live their life according to their own traditions. If we want to maintain a diverse Europe, the time has come to support and to promote their values too.

The Minority SafePack Initiative does not want to take anything from the majority communities or from Europe. It simply wants to make it more diverse with their languages and cultures.

Sign the petition and make the European Union a place where every person belonging to a national minority or a language group can feel at home!

STOP LANGUAGES IN EUROPE
FROM BECOMING EXTINCT!

Click for the story of Goaitsen

CULTURES ARE EQUAL

Click for the story of Harn and Armelle

LANGUAGE EQUALITY

Click for the story of Ádám and Anna

AT HOME IN OUR REGION

Click for the story of Frederik

FREE PASSAGE OF
AUDIOVISUAL CONTENT

Click for the story of Claus, Astrid, Alfond and Giorgio

RIGHTS FOR STATELESS PEOPLE!

Click for the story of stateless people

FAQ

1. What is a European Citizens’ Initiative?

The European Citizens’ Initiative is an instrument of direct democracy that was introduced by the European Union in 2012. If more than one million European citizens from at least seven Member States support an initiative proposed by a group of citizens, the European Commission must engage in the proposal.

2. What does the Minority SafePack Initiative mean?

It is a package of law proposals for the safety of the national minorities, a set of EU legal acts that enable the promotion of minority rights, language rights, and the protection of their cultures. In short, it sums up our main objectives: safety for minorities and legislative package for minorities.

3. Why support the Minority SafePack Initiative?

The motto of the European Union is “In varietate concordia – United in diversity”. The purpose of the Minority SafePack Initiative is to encourage the European Union to live up to its motto and to improve the protection of people belonging to national and linguistic minorities and strengthen cultural and linguistic diversity in the Union. The European Union has ignored these requests too often in the past, and has left the minority issues to be dealt with on a Member State level, or by other international organisations.

4. What do we want?

We want the European Union to take responsibility and become a genuine promoter of cultural and linguistic diversity across Europe. We want the Copenhagen Criteria on protecting the rights of minorities to be observed also by the Member States of the EU.

5. What do we propose?

The Minority SafePack Initiative includes eleven original proposals, nine of which were registered by the European Commission:

  1. EU-Recommendation for the protection and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity
  2. Funding programmes for small linguistic communities,
  3. The creation of a Language Diversity Centre
  4. The objectives of EU’s regional development funds to include the protection of national minorities and the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity
  5. Research about the added value of minorities to our societies and Europe
  6. Approximating equality for stateless minorities e.g. Roma
  7. A single European copyright law, so that services and broadcast can be enjoyed in the mother tongue
  8. Freedom of service and reception of audio-visual content in the minority regions
  9. Block exemption of regional (state) support for minority culture, media and cultural heritage conservation.

6. What do I support by signing the Minority SafePack Initiative?

By signing for our initiative, you show the European Union that you would like it to strengthen cultural and linguistic diversity and minority rights.

Sponsors

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Sign it!

STOP LANGUAGES IN EUROPE
FROM BECOMING EXTINCT!

The story of Goaitsen

Goaitsen has lived his whole life in the small
Frisian village of Wyns, in the Netherlands.

Now he is retired. One day he accidentally leaves the stove on. The kitchen is already burning by the time he notices, so he calls the 112 emergency number. A friendly lady, Anita, answers the phone, but since the emergency line was recently centralised to another part of the country, she does not speak Frisian and Goaitsen has trouble making himself understood in Dutch. As a consequence Anita sends the firemen to Wynaldum instead of Wyns, and Goaitsen’s house burns down to the ground, before the firemen eventually arrive one hour late.

His story proves how crucial it can be to use your mother tongue, and make yourself understood in your mother tongue. In Wales (United Kingdom) for example there is always at least one person on each shift who can speak Welsh at the emergency centre. This is definitely a good practice worth sharing and promoting in the Netherlands and in the entire EU.

According to UNESCO, the world has over 6000 languages. If nothing is done, half of these will disappear by the end of the 21st century. Humanity would lose not only a cultural wealth but also important ancestral knowledge embedded in these languages. The key for the survival of smaller languages is to use themanywhere, anytime, in all possible contexts.

Everywhere in Europe and around the world, new solutions are being developed for language learning and for the use of different languages in practice to cater for the need of small language communities.

Often economy of scale negatively affects small language groups –
investment in new applications or solutions are too
costly for a small linguistic community.

Our solution: the Minority SafePack Initiative!

We call upon the EU to establish and provide funding to a Language Diversity Centre in the field of regional and minority languages, focusing on the smallest and most vulnerable language communities in Europe. The Language Diversity Centre shall provide information, knowledge and expertise and pool resources that can help different language communities to learn from each other.

Tell us your story

ALL CULTURES ARE VALUABLE!

The story of Harn and Armelle

Harn and Armelle are a Breton couple living in France.
Harn is a teacher, while Armelle is a bank clerk.

One of their hobbies is attending Fest-Noz (Night Festival), where they can dance traditional Breton dances accompanied by singing and often by instrumental music as well. The couple loves the 400 years old tradition of Fest-Noz, because it is an entertaining way of expressing their identities, and they enjoy socialising with other members of the Breton community. They help organize the Fest-Noz in their village, one of over a thousand similar annual events taking place in Brittany. Since 2012, Fest-Noz is on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity.

The Breton Fest-Noz shows us how a cultural tradition can revitalize a whole community and become a symbol of it, how it can also become a role model for other regions or Member States. Let us not forget: it took hard work from hundreds of people to make this happen. Some minority communities do not have the resources to organize such events on their own, and in some cases the Members States hinder their initiatives and there are no EU funds available to support them.

While the majority communities enjoy their language rights and culture by default, in public and with public funding, the same treatment is just a dream or a privilege for some minorities.

We believe cultures should be equal
and should be equally appreciated.

Our solution: the Minority SafePack Initiative!

We call on the EU to protect and support its cultural diversity and guarantee equal access to European funds – because we all pay taxes.

Tell us your story

EQUAL CHANCES IN LANGUAGE USE!

The story of Ádám and Anna

Ádám and Anna, brother and sister, are Hungarians
from Transylvania, a historical region of Romania.

Ádám had the opportunity to learn about the world in geography class in his mother tongue in primary school in the village where they live. But now that he will become a 5th grader, his parents face a choice. He would either have to travel 20 kilometres every day, by himself, to the neighbouring city, where education is available in his mother tongue or stay at home and continue in a Romanian school.

His sister Anna will soon be of school age, and the decision in her case seems to be even more difficult: if the minimum number of pupils for a class is not met, there will be no Hungarian first grade class at all in the village. Small children will have to take a long journey every day to the next Hungarian school or she will go to the Romanian school without being able to learn to read or write properly in her own language.

You may have heard about similar stories in many EU states. The mother tongue is a key element of identity preservation and besides family the school plays an important role in shaping the identity of children as they grow up. If this opportunity is taken away, children belonging to minorities would surely step on the path of assimilation.

Although Europe’s cultural richness is based on linguistic and cultural diversity, and its people, the current linguistic and cultural policies tend to favour the official languages of the Member States. Action is needed. The EU and the Member States should create favourable conditions for linguistic and cultural diversity to thrive.

The Union should prevent marginalisation
of certain communities.

Our solution: the Minority SafePack Initiative!

We call on the EU for a Recommendation in which the EU shall define best ways to protect and promote cultural and linguistic diversity, in particular for the protection and use of regional and minority languages in the areas of public administration, public services, education, culture, in the judiciary, media, health care, commerce and consumer protection.

Furthermore, any criteria that exclude regional and minority languages from the EU funding programmes should be abolished in the new programme generations for education, training, youth and culture.

Tell us your story

AT HOME IN OUR REGION

The story of Frederik

Frederik is Danish. He lives with his family in
South Schleswig, Germany.

His children attend the Danish school in Flensburg, which is considered to be the best in the city. His community enjoys extended language rights, cultural autonomy; they can manage their own schools, clubs and social establishments. Their double loyalty to the German state and to the Danish people is never questioned.

From his elders he has heard many stories about how ethnic Germans were oppressed while Schleswig was part of the Danish crown, and how later ethnic Danes were suffering from discrimination under Prussian rule. After 1920 the province was divided between the Denmark and Germany. This is old history now.

In the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations of 1955, Germany and Denmark promised to uphold the rights of each other’s minority communities. Today there is trust and an excellent relationship between the two states and the two minority communities contribute substantially to the well-being of the region as a whole.

This is a story with a happy end.
Unfortunately, relations between countries and
minorities are not always so harmonious!

The German-Danish regional cooperation, which is based on the added value of the minority communities from both sides of the border, is a great example for the whole of Europe.

Our solution: the Minority SafePack Initiative!

We call on the EU to amend the common provisions of the regional funds in such a way that the thematic objectives include the protection of national minorities and the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity.

Tell us your story

FREE PASSAGE OF AUDIOVISUAL CONTENT

The story of Claus, Astrid, Alfons and Giorgio

Claus, Astrid, Alfons and Giorgio are young people
from Sand in Taufers/Campo Tures, South Tyrol, Italy.

They love football, just as most fellows from Europe do.As members of the German speaking community, they mostly watch German or Austrian TV channels. Except for football games. The broadcast of the German and Austrian programs stops when an international play starts. Claus, Astrid, Alfons and Giorgio heard about geoblocking and copyrights, but they don’t care about the details. They only want to watch football with commentaries in their mother tongue. Same as millions of sports fans all over the EU.

This is why we have to STOP GEOBLOCKING!

Every European citizen shall have the right to enjoy culture and entertainment in his own language. It`s time to say goodbye to digital borders, time for a European single market for copyright.

Our solution: the Minority SafePack Initiative!

We call on the EU to establish a unitary European copyright that will lead to the abolishment of licensing barriers within the Union. We propose an amendment with the effect of ensuring that there will be freedom of service and freedom of reception of audio-visual content in those regions where the minorities live.

Tell us your story

RIGHTS FOR STATELESS PEOPLE!

The main reason for the existence of stateless people in Europe is the
dissolution of states, such as the Soviet-Union and former Yugoslavia,
and the establishment of their successor states.

In the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, there are still many non-citizens of Russian descent. The Roma who are affected by statelessness, are mostly former citizens of Yugoslavia and their offspring. After the dissolution of the Soviet-Union and Yugoslavia, the successor states had discriminating regulations and difficult bureaucratic conditions for registering, which were often an obstacle to become citizens of the newly formed states. Also for the Roma who fled the war in the nineties and their offspring, it has been extremely difficult to become citizens in their new countries of living.

There are hundreds of thousands of stateless persons in Europe, many belonging to national minorities. They are the most endangered minorities of the EU. As the Member States do not consider them citizens, they don’t have access the most basic rights, including the right to residence or to have a legal job. The denial of citizenship in the country where they live, is, in fact, a form of cultural and economic oppression.

Only Member States can naturalize stateless individuals
and make them the citizens of their state.

The EU, however, can legislate in this area and give stateless persons the right to have a residence, to work, to provide services, to travel within the EU and many other rights that EU citizens have in countries other than their own.

Our solution: the Minority SafePack Initiative!

We call upon the EU to adopt an amendment to the directives that allow for the approximation of the rights of long-term stateless persons and their families to those of EU-citizens.

Tell us your story

SIGN NON EU STATES

EU MEMBER STATES

    Thank you for your support!

    Disclaimer

    Since only citizens of one of the EU Member States can sign the European Citizens’ Initiative on the website of the European Commission, please be aware that the European Commission will not officially consider your support. However, it is very important that you manifest your interest in the protection and promotion of the European minority languages and cultures. The organizers will do their utmost that also your message be heard during the assessment of the Minority SafePack Initiative. Your support for the European minority solidarity is extremely valuable for us!

    Tell us your story!

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