Why do national minorities receive less attention in the EU?

These were among the questions faced by Michael McGrath, the European commissioner for democracy, justice, rule of law and consumer protection, at a recent meeting of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages.

“Respect for the rights of persons belonging to minorities is one of the core values of the European Union,” McGrath said. “It underpins EU law and policy, and the Commission addresses this issue across a range of policy areas.”

He pointed out that the European Commission supports the rights of national minorities in many policy areas. In particular, it is making significant efforts to protect minorities in the field of hate speech. It also places great importance on multilingualism and actively promotes it.

The Commission is also aware of the difficulties faced by linguistic minorities in accessing audiovisual content in their own language (for example due to geoblocking), and is working to overcome these barriers.

“Do you see a way of integrating the protection of minorities more systematically into the EU’s broader efforts to uphold its values?” the chair of the intergroup, Loránt Vincze, asked at the outset of the meeting. Vincze, an MEP and former president of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), belongs to the Hungarian minority in Romania.

The commissioner’s response was the same as the one he had recently given to a recent parliamentary question, reflecting the Commission’s position that responsibility for national minorities lies with the member states rather than the EU.

This position had previously led the Commission to refuse to engage with the substance of the European Citizens’ Initiative Minority SafePack, which had been supported by more than one million EU citizens.

McGrath did, however, indicate a willingness to include the issue of the treatment of minorities, including linguistic minorities, in the EU’s rule of law report.

He also referred to the recently launched European Democracy Shield, which aims to strengthen, protect and promote strong and resilient democracies across the EU. “If you have concrete ideas on how we can improve democratic participation and engagement of traditional and linguistic minorities, I would be happy to take them forward,” McGrath said.