29 Μαρτίου 2010

Minority conflicts in Europe: EU must deal with this problem

On Wednesday, 24 March 2010 MEPs GUE/NGL Jiří Maštálka (Czech Republic) and Alfred Rubiks (Latvia) organized a public hearing "Minority conflicts in Europe: problems and perspectives after the Lisbon Treaty" in the European Parliament.
     

The hearing was opened by President of the GUE/NGL group Lothar Bisky (Germany), who, inter alia, expressed concern about the rise of nationalist disputes in the EU and noted the abuse of ethnic minorities for political purposes before the Second World War.

    
Jiří Maštálka outlined in his speech the gravity and complexity of the problems of minorities and their protection in an integrated Europe. Alfred Rubiks talked about the genesis of ethnic problems in Latvia, in particular about the status of the so-called non-citizens (particularly those of Russian nationality), people with limited civil rights. He also expressed astonishment that the EU does not deal with this problem, although otherwise is very critical of human rights violations in countries outside the EU.

German journalist Renate Hennecke particularly spoke about the so-called Sudeten Germans and their role as "national group" in the breaking up of Czechoslovakia before the Second World War and about their current negative influence on Czech-German relations. This speech had a strong response among the guests of the hearing - most of them were from the Czech Republic. 
    

Political scientist Prof. Oskar Krejci gave a pessimistic vision of the future of Europe, losing its economic, cultural and political importance, and changing its demographic character. Current calls for changes to state borders in Europe coming from EU member states, were extremely dangerous he said. "We must defend state borders, otherwise Europe will fall apart in our hands" he said. 
     
Artur Nevickijs from Latvia described the problematic situation of this EU member state, including the disastrous economic situation in recent years. Zuzana Poláčková, Slovak political scientist, in addition to her theoretical bases mentioned the development of minority issues in the 20 century and the current revitalization of nationalism and national emancipation. 
Public hearings on the issue of national minorities were evaluated as an important step in view of the existing so-called ethno-political conflicts in Europe and it can be expected that this issue will get more space on the agenda of the European Parliament.

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