Foriegn minister calls on Council of Europe to take issue of protecting European minorities seriously

Hungary calls on the Council of Europe to take the issue of protecting European minorities seriously, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Strasbourg on Monday.

Speaking by phone to MTI during a two-day conference on the protection of minorities and regional and minority languages, Szijjártó said the various European institutions paid for by European taxpayers were more concerned about illegal migrants than national minorities that have dwelled in Europe for centuries.

“This is unacceptable,” he said.

He said it was wrong for a European institution to concern itself with Hungary’s “Stop Soros” law aimed at ensuring the security of the Hungarian people rather than with the Hungarians of western Ukraine “whose rights are being seriously breached”, he added.

The conference is taking place to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

“One of Europe’s most important values is protecting minority rights and the Council of Europe should take this seriously,” Szijjártó said.

The minister said Transcarpathian Hungarians had been stripped of one of their minority rights, and although the CoE had supported Hungary verbally, none of the Venice Commission’s recommendations had been implemented by Ukraine. The law which deprives students of their right to study in their mother tongue is being implemented in the absence of any agreement between the Ukrainian government and Hungarian minority organisations, he said.