ABTTF attended the Expert Meeting on Minority Citizens' Initiative

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) attended the expert meeting on European Citizens’ Initiative for the minorities of Europe, organised by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) on 22 January 2013 and hosted by Iuliu Winkler, MEP (Romania) through the participation of ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu and ABTTF Brussels Representation.

The Initiative is to take off in June 2013

ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu joined the lunch reception hosted by Iuliu Winkler. Following the special lunch reception, Habipoğlu attended the expert meeting where the roadmap for launching a legislative proposal to the European Commission has been discussed.

In partnership with the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RDMSZ) in representation of Hungarian minority in Romania at FUEN, the South Tyrolean People’s Party (SVP) in autonomous South Tyrol and Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) in representation of Youth associatıons of European minorities, Minority Citizens’ Initiative has been studied through an in-depth analysis.

The Initiative will unite the European minorities on the way to a common mission

The objective of the Minority Citizen Initiative is to form a comprehensive package of measures for the protection of European minorities. Equally, the Initiative will be a political campaign for the sake of mobilizing European nationalities towards a common objective in the even of European Parliamentary elections to be held in 2014. To this end, FUEN as the founding father of the Initiative will establish partnerships with the associations in representaiton of the other European minorities.

Target: 1 Milion signature!

Esteemed participants of the meeting; Frank Hoffmeister Deputy Head of Cabinet of Karel De Gucht European Commission Vice President for Trade, Dimitry Kochenov Chair of European Constitutional Law at the Groningen University, Dr. Gabriel Toggenburg European Fundamental Rights Agency Legal Research Programme Manager and Dr. Günther Rautz Researcher at European Academy in Bolzano have exchanged their views and expertise on legal aspects of the intiative.

The experts meeting hosted by Iuliu Winkler has been attended by other MEPs, including Herbert Dorfmann (Italy), Csaba Sandor Tabajdi (Hungary) and Csaba Sogor (Romania).Csaba Sandor Tabajdi, Co-chair of the Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages, expressed his concerns that the initiative does not imply the immigrant minorities in Europe, but solely addresses the traditional and autochtonous minorities on the European territories. Once the Initiative is started, it should be supported by European minorities and that will be the time and occasion for the European minorities to show solidarity, according to Tabajdi.