In a video message posted to his Facebook page, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signed, and urged everyone to sign, the Minority SafePack, arguing that the initiative is essential to defend the rights of Hungarians living in minority communities abroad.
The Minority SafePack is a signature drive campaign aiming to defend and extend minority rights in Europe. One of the initiators was RMDSZ, a Hungarian party in Romania, but since then a number of organizations from all over Europe have joined. Minority rights have, over the past several years, been a point of focus for the Orbán government, as over 4 million ethnic Hungarians live in neighboring countries, most of them in Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia, often with limited minority and language rights.
According to its official description, the Minority SafePack calls upon the EU to
adopt 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. It shall include policy actions in the areas of regional and minority languages, education and culture, regional policy, participation, equality, audiovisual and other media content, and also regional (state) support.
As the SafePack is officially a European Citizens’ Initiative, if more than 1 million European support it, the European Commission must officially respond to the proposal. The deadline is April 4th, 2018. You can sign it offline in post offices or online here.