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The Minority Intergroup has successfully completed its five-year mandate

2019. 04. 01.

Press release by László Tőkés, Andor Deli and Kinga Gál

On Thursday, the European Parliament’s Minority Intergroup concluded its mandate with a final declaration highlighting the importance of protecting indigenous national and linguistic minority communities. The meeting also discussed the controversy of the dissolution of the Medical and Pharmaceutical University of Târgu Mureş, and the Hungarian National Council of Vojvodina in Serbia also attended.

Initiated by MEP László Tőkés, the Minority Intergroup put on its agenda the scandalous case of the arbitrary abolition of the Medical and Pharmaceutical University of Târgu-Mureș (MOGYE), a faculty that was established in 1945 by royal decree and has been continuously under pressure from the Romanian state. “In 1959, Romanian communists abolished the Hungarian Bolyai University by merging it with the Romanian Babes University in Cluj-Napoca. Similarly, in 2018, MOGYE was forced to merge with the Romanian-language Petru Maior University in Târgu Mureş,” Tőkés said, describing the petition submitted by Hungarians in Romania to the Romanian Minister of Education.

“One of the stakes at play during the upcoming European Parliamentary elections in May is to send those representatives to the European Parliament who care about the fate of the indigenous national minorities in Europe,” said Andor Deli, Fidesz MEP from Vojvodina, during the meeting where the president and members of the Hungarian National Council (MNT) were also present. “It is a great pleasure for me that the Hungarian National Council, the vanguard of self-defense of Hungarians from Vojvodina, can be the guest of the EP Minority Intergroup for the second time. In cooperation with Jenő Hajnal, the president of MNT, we have managed to make the most of this avenue of the EP’s advocacy mechanism. The Minority Intergroup stand as the most important forum in the European Parliament for the hearing of  the obstacles and challenges of indigenous national and linguistic minorities. One of the most important issues at play in the elections ahead of us is to gather as many MEPs as possible who are ready to promote EU minority policy,” Andor Deli said.

Fidesz MEP Kinga Gál added: “In the past five years, we have organized 35 meetings in total, and topics that affect Hungarian communities beyond the borders were presented at every third session. The most up-to-date issues that require international attention have been put on the agenda, whether it was about positive action, initiatives or the most serious cases and situations of concern.” “Organizing the work of the Minority Intergroup over the last five years required constant attention and a lot of energy,” said Gál. “But this is the only way to put the problems of both Hungarian minority communities and other traditional linguistic and national communities in Europe on the agenda and try to solve them. We are struggling from day to day to find common ground on future EU standards to protect indigenous national and linguistic minority communities. This is also the purpose of the final declaration adopted today, which was created in cooperation with my colleague Pál Csáky,” said Gál, who is also co-chair of the Minority Intergroup.