Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002190/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Şerban Dimitrie Sturdza (ECR)
The rights of persons belonging to minorities are guaranteed both by multilateral and by bilateral international agreements and are enshrined in the constitutional systems of many Member States, while respect for them is a prerequisite in any assessment of the rule of law.
PACE Recommendation 1201, adopted in 1993, for an additional protocol on minority rights to the European Convention on Human Rights, expressly referred to in the European Parliament resolution of 13 November 2018 on minimum standards for minorities in the EU (2018/2036 (INI)), establishes as a general principle that ‘The exercise of the rights and freedoms listed in this protocol fully applies to the persons belonging to the majority in the whole of the state but who constitute a minority in one or several of its regions’, with this applying to regions such as the Basque Country and Catalonia (Spain), Corsica (France), South Tyrol and Sardinia (Italy), Covasna and Harghita (Romania) and the Åland Islands (Finland), etc.
- 1.How does the Commission monitor the implementation of this general principle in EU Member States’ legislation, notably in the case of Romania?
- 2.What concrete steps have EU Member States taken to implement this general principle in their legislation, especially in areas such as education in one’s mother tongue, recognition of cultural identity, participation in regional and national public life and access to public funding?
Submitted: 2.6.2025