Marosvásárhely

7. FAILURE OF THE MINORITY SAFEPACK INITIATIVE

According to the official site of the Minority SafePack initiative, „The Minority SafePack is a package of law proposals for the safety of the national minorities, a set of EU legal acts that enable the promotion of minority rights, language rights, and the protection of their cultures. In short, safety for minorities and legislative package for minorities.”

It is unfortunate that an attempt to establish a European standard in minority rights spectacularly failed when the minority Safepack was rejected, in spite of the fact that there was a clear sign on the part of European minorities that they support this initiative, which is backed by more than 1 million signatures Europe-wide

The Minority SafePack initiative was very important for all the minorities throughout Europe, including the Hungarian minority in Romania.

It is unfortunate that despite the more than one million European citizens’ signature for the Minority SafePack and the support of the European Parliament, the initiative failed after the European Commission rejected its legislative proposals. Not just politicians, but also the people belonging to national and linguistic minorities feel that the European Commission has let them down.

In 2017, Romania expressed its disagreement and antipathy toward this initiative by appealing to the court and asking it to scrap the initiative. Romania’s manifestation of rejecting a Europeanlevel solution for minority issues confirms its dismissive position when it comes to solving the problems related to the Hungarian community in the country. The reason why a European solution is needed is that if this matter is not controlled at supranational level, nation-states, like Romania, will abuse their power.

Observations and recommendations: The situation of the Hungarian community living in Romania is also affected by the rejection of the Minority SafePack by the European Commission, anti-Hungarian sentiment and anti-Hungarian manifestations are still present in Romania. According to the recommendations of this year’s European Regional Forum on Minority Issues “The EU must reconsider the proposals of more than a million citizens, supported by the European Parliament in a resolution with over 75% of the votes cast, as well as by national and regional governments the European petition campaign called the Minority Safepack European Citizens’ Initiative which called for the adoption of a set of legal acts to improve the protection of persons belonging to national and linguistic minorities and strengthen cultural and linguistic diversity in the Union.”

8. CONCLUSION

There have been many worrisome developments in 2021, when it comes to minority rights in general and the situation of the Hungarian community in Romania in particular.

The violation of linguistic rights is a continuing problem affecting the Hungarian minority in Romania. There is still a strong political resistance regarding any attempts to update minority rights protection, while current laws on the use of minority languages are often discriminatory. Even after a modification, the Administrative Code does still not encompass satisfactory laws and legal principles regarding the use of minority languages in and by local public institutions.

Due to the lack of a clear legal framework, there are still ongoing fights concerning the issues of bilingual place name signs, street signs or even town hall inscriptions. Vandalisation of place name signs and lawsuits against bilingual inscriptions continue to be common in Romania.

The issues related to the healthcare system are of utmost importance in the light of the global health crises. Translations of vital public information in minority languages related to the COVID-19 pandemic are still not present everywhere and uniformly. Other forms of ethnic discrimination faced by people belonging to the Hungarian minority include the continued struggle to ensure that minorities are attended within the healthcare system by medical personnel that speaks their mother tongue.

Cases of ethnic harassment in the country unfortunately continue to abound, which disproportinally affect the Hungarian people. In the course of 2021, many Hungarian individuals were discriminated, verbally or even physically attacked because of their ethnic origins. It is unacceptable for such cases to happen in a democratic state, where fundamental rights and freedoms are guaranteed by law.

Teaching the official language of Romania to Hungarian-speaking students is still a struggle, which is intensified by the fact that Romanian language and literature textbooks for 9th grader pupils, designed especially for teaching Romanians as a second language, have not arrived in time. In addition to this, the method of teaching the state language to minorities has still not been modified to a satisfactory degree. Theoretical knowledge still stands out, instead of more practical exercises, which would help them communicate in their daily life.

Moreover, the situation of the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely is still unsolved, not to mention the unjust attempts to close the II. Rákóczi Ferenc Roman-Catholic High School in Târgu Mureș, which are two extremely discriminatory measures.

A systematic double standard is traceable when it comes to the symbols of the Hungarian community in Romania. It is completely unreasonable that Hungarian people are not allowed to use the Szekler flag, while other regions in Romania, like Moldova and Bucovina, can use their flag freely.

Hate speech and racism are still a mainstay in the political discourse. Many political leaders used the method of inciting to hatred against the Hungarian minority and their political leaders in order to gain political capital on social media platforms, which became a breeding ground for xenophobic rhetoric. There is an urgent need for updating laws regarding the rights to freedom of speech.

Anti-Hungarian behaviour is still common in sports, mainly football. To combat hate speech directed against the Hungarian minority, which is sadly rampant during sporting events, a further set of comprehensive measures is needed.

Unfortunately, there has not been much progress in Romania regarding the restitution of private property confiscated during the communist regime, despite numerous international commitments taken by Romania to this effect.

There have been many developments concerning the issue of the illegal appropriation of the military cemetery in the Uz Valley, but there is a need for further positive ones. Many of the lawsuits are still ongoing, while some of them were closed.

In lieu of a comprehensive package of laws guaranteeing the rights of national minorities, and given that minority issues are often used by majority politicians as a means of fearmongering and gaining political capital, any systematic change regarding the situation of minority rights in the near future seems unlikely. In this context, the role that Hungarian civil society can play in signalling discrimination and fighting for basic rights is crucial. Therefore, the Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance will continue to closely monitor the situation of minority rights in Romania, and use all legal and diplomatic means to fight for the causes which are relevant for the Hungarian community in Romania.