29 November 2024

This year the series of parliamentary events linked to the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2024 finishes with the Interparliamentary Conference on Cultural Heritage and the Identity of National Communities on 4-5 December 2024. Complementing the series of interparliamentary conferences held so far, given the importance of the topic, the event is organised by the Hungarian National Assembly as an optional programme of the Hungarian presidency's parliamentary dimension. The event, expected to be attended by 150 people, provides a framework for interparliamentary debate on current European issues concerning the situation and challenges of national communities and the presentation of good practices in the corresponding policies.

The event will be attended by delegations of representatives from national parliaments of the European Union and the European Parliament; as well as guests from some European regions and experts in the field. László Kövér, Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly will hold the welcoming address of the event. Károly Pánczél, Chair of the Committee on National Cohesion of the Hungarian National Assembly and Imre Ritter, MP representing the German community, Chair of the Committee on National Minorities in Hungary of the Hungarian National Assembly will co-host the conference in Budapest. The keynote speakers at the opening of the conference will be Theodoros Rousopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Nicolas Levrat, United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Loránt Vincze, Member of the European Parliament, President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), and Elisabeth Sándor-Szalay, Deputy Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Ombudsman for the Rights of National Minorities. The opening of the conference will be chaired by Ferenc András Kalmár, Special Envoy, former Member of the Hungarian parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The thematic session entitled “Cultural heritage and protection of national minorities” will be organised with the participation of prominent parliamentary speakers such as Zsolt Németh, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Hungarian National Assembly, Head of the Hungarian parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Javier Ignacio Maroto Aranzábal, Deputy Speaker of the Senate of Spain and Elvira Kovács, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. The thematic session will be chaired by Károly Pánczél, Chair of the Committee on National Cohesion of the Hungarian National Assembly.

In the panel discussion entitled “Good practices – the national minority rights scene in Europe” among representatives of minorities Paul Videsott, university professor at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Madlena Mahling, Commissioner for Sorbian Affairs of the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism, Tuomas Aslak Juuso, Vice President of the Sámi Parliament of Finland and Erika Kiss-Köles, Slovene national minority advocate, Vice Chairman of the Committee on National Minorities in Hungary will present the situation in their communities, outlining both the results achieved and the difficulties encountered. The panel discussion will be moderated by Katalin Szili, Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister and former Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly.

A publication entitled “Cultural heritage, national minorities, human rights” was published in connection with the event and is available here.

For more information on the conference, please click here. The event will also be streamed live.