12 December 2024

The series of parliamentary events of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2024 concluded with the Interparliamentary Conference on Cultural Heritage and the Identity of National Communities organised by the Hungarian National Assembly on 4-5 December 2024.

In his opening speech, László Kövér, Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly pointed out: Europe's cultural heritage and the future of the continent are rooted in the creative power of European citizens, and this creative power lies in national identity. It is the citizens who have a national identity, which stems from their mother tongue, their culture and their homeland. The Speaker proposed that the United Nations (UN) take the initiative to add to the latest generation of universal human rights, the right to national identity, a right that has been sorely lacking until now. He stressed that the right to national identity is the right of all human beings to freely inherit from their ancestors their mother tongue, their culture and the familiarity of their homeland, and to freely transmit it to their descendants.

The opening session of the event was chaired by Ferenc Kalmár, Special Envoy and former member of the Hungarian National Assembly and the Hungarian delegation to the Council of Europe, who emphasised that cultural diversity is based on the identity of national communities, and that both cultural heritage and national communities, whether they are in a majority or minority status, must be protected.

In his keynote speech, Theodoros Rousopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe presented the concept of culture and identity as main pillars of the Council of Europe and in particular of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The President stressed that the protection of national minorities and their languages is not only a matter of justice but also an imperative for the preservation of our cultural identity and social cohesion.

Nicolas Levrat, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minorities, noted that the European Union is not performing well on minority protection issues, praised the role of the Minority SafePack, the European Citizens' Initiative and called it essential to improve the possibilities for identity preservation.

Loránt Vincze, MEP and President of the Federation of European Nationalities (FUEN), argued for a European-level solution by contrasting good and bad practices in EU member states. He drew attention to the fact that while formally the protection of minorities is one of the EU's core values, the development of a common institutional framework is constantly encountering obstacles.

Elisabeth Sándor Szalay, the ombudsman responsible for the protection of national minorities in Hungary, stressed that many old and new challenges make difficult for minorities to survive. She called for more cooperation, adaptation and a complex approach to ensure successful minority protection, appealed to take into account the diversity within minority groups, and also recalled that the European instruments for the protection of minorities developed 25 years ago are still capable of ensuring respect for diversity rather than national homogeneity.

The thematic session on Cultural Heritage and the Protection of National Minorities was chaired by Károly Pánczél, Chairman of the Committee on National Cohesion of the Hungarian National Assembly. In the introductory speeches, Zsolt Németh, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Hungarian National Assembly, reviewed the latest challenges in minority protection, starting from the destruction of cultural heritage in contemporary armed conflicts. Javier Maroto, Vice-President of the Spanish Senate, focused on the right to be different, and Elvira Kovács, Vice-President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, highlighted the links between the EU accession process and minority protection.

In the panel discussion entitled “Good Practices – the national minority rights scene in Europe” led by Katalin Szili, former Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, the panellists presented examples of minority rights protection from all over Europe. Among the speakers were Paul Videsott, professor at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in South Tyrol, Madlena Mahling, Commissioner for the Sorbian Affairs of the Saxon Ministry of Science, Culture and Tourism, Tuomas Aslak Juuso, Vice President of the Sámi Parliament of Finland, Erika Kissné Köles, Slovene nationality advocate and Vice President of the Committee on National Minorities in Hungary of the Hungarian National Assembly, and Lőrinc Nacsa, State Secretary for Hungarian Communities Abroad.

Pál Zsigmond Barna, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of European Union Affairs, presented the key areas of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2024, with a special focus on the elements related to the topic of the conference.

After a rich exchange of views with the participants, the conference was closed by Károly Pánczél, Chairman of the Committee on National Cohesion, who expressed the hope that the conference had succeeded in demonstrating that the protection of European cultural heritage is inseparable from the protection of the identity and rights of national minorities. The speakers also confirmed that respect for minority rights is linked to the implementation of democratic principles, and that the protection of minorities is a measure of democracy. He called it a common task for Europe to pay much more attention to traditional communities, which are often vulnerable but are value-creating citizens.

More information on the conference can be found here.