"All we ask is that the rights that the Hungarians of Transcarpathia already had should be restored," said Péter Szijjártó.Continue reading
Last week an attempt was made to prevent the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) from taking place and to silence the participants in Brussels. Now, József Berényi was not given a voice at the meeting of the European Committee of the Regions, writes ma7.sk. József Berényi, EP candidate of the Hungarian Alliance, vice-chairman of the county of Trnava (Nagyszombat, present day Slovakia) was supposed to speak at the meeting of the European Committee of the Regions a few days ago, but was not allowed to do so, the politician wrote on his social media page.
“The European Committee of the Regions is the voice of the regions and cities of the European Union. I am a member of this institution as county vice-chairman. I have been taking part in these meetings for five years and have always had the opportunity to speak: this week was different,” József Berényi wrote in his post. As he explained in a video posted on his Facebook page, the meeting of the European Committee of the Regions is a meeting of some 350 mayors and county leaders who discuss Europe, and this time the meeting was held in the run-up to the European elections in two months’ time.
“This is the first time in five years that I have not been given an opportunity to speak, even though I had requested it in good time.” According to him, this was no accident:
Very few people had a say in the material on the enlargement of the European Union, including the future of Ukraine. There are mistakes in this material, especially on the issue of the national community,”
he explained in the video.
He wanted to speak on this topic, he said, pointing out the errors and shortcomings in the material. He added that Ukraine still has a long way to go before joining the EU, as nationality rights must be respected upon accession.
He noted that the debate was mainly addressed by Czech, Polish, and French representatives, and the mayor of Russian-occupied Mariupol was also invited. Accordingly, there was an atmosphere in which his speech would not have fitted, he pointed out. After this incident, he did not vote for the report on Ukraine’s accession. In his opinion, two months before the European elections, it would be inappropriate to silence anyone, instead “everyone should be listened to and then a common position should be reached.”
Via ma7.sk, Featured image: Wikipedia