Action against cage farming: Yes. Action for indigenous minorities: No?!

The European Commission has given a positive reply to the European Citizens’ Initiative to abolish the use of caged animal farming. Whilst the Minority SafePack initiative on the protection of indigenous minorities, which has gathered 1.2 million supporters, has been swept off the table by the European Commission, it is now taking immediate action to end caged farming. “It is extremely regrettable that the European Union pays more attention to animals than to indigenous national minorities. With this step, the European Commission has once again shown that it initiates legislation at its convenience, continuously applying double standards,” Fidesz MEPs Kinga Gál, Andrea Bocskor and Andor Deli emphasized.

“The European Commission’s practice, putting the welfare of pets above the interests of tens of millions of EU citizens living as members of indigenous minority communities, is unbelievable. While action regarding the Minority SafePack European Citizens’ Initiative, signed by nearly 1.2 million people, was refused point-blank by the European Commission, in the case of the initiative called “End the Cage Age”, it launches legislation under pressure from the green lobby. It is now clear that indigenous European citizens who speak a minority language are not only considered second-class citizens in their own countries, but also in the eyes of the European Commission. This double standard applied to traditional national minorities, which make up ten percent of the European Union’s population, is unacceptable!

The rejection of the Minority SafePack has further weakened the confidence of European citizens in the European Union’s institutional system. Indigenous national minorities throughout Europe suffer disadvantages through no fault of their own but simply because they are not part of the majority society in terms of their culture and language. We need to talk about this problem!

It is unacceptable that the Commission claimed it had already done everything it could in regard to the Minority SafePack and it does not consider further measures to be necessary. The Commission’s position is outrageous, not least because it has expressed its desire to get closer to the citizens of the European Union on numerous occasions over the years. The message of today’s announcement is that nearly 1.2 million European citizens have only “imaginary” problems. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an increased need to get closer to EU citizens belonging to national minorities, despite the fact that the rights of indigenous national minority communities are as much a part of the EU’s values as other communities in need of special protection and attention.

Following today’s announcement, we reiterate our call on the Commission to re-evaluate its decision on the Minority SafePack initiative and to make a proposal to protect the rights of national and language minorities.