François Alfonsi speaks out for Minorities' rights.

EFA MEP François Alfonsi intervened in the Plenary debate on The 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities.

 

The Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Minorities Intergroup took the opportunity to highlight the lack of support and the discrimination that minorities worldwide suffer. He regretted that on Monday, the European Parliament failed to pass the vote for a resolution on minority rights by only two votes.

 

MEP Alfonsi discussed several texts from the 1990s approved by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, such as the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and more, texts that, as he said "have formed the basis of the European Union's values" since 1993.

 

"Unfortunately, the last two decades have eroded interest in these issues, which are essential to the European Union's cohesion and respect for its motto: United in diversity." He said.

 

The Corsican MEP stressed the different minorities around the world that are currently suffering attacks towards their identity, safety and their existence, the persecution of people from Kurdistan, the aggressions in Nagorno-Karabakh, the genocide of Uyghurs in China, among others. He lamented the overlooking and inaction from the European Union for these communities. 

 

"Within Europe, the issues are just as topical. The Copenhagen criteria have still not been ratified by a country like France, and the United Nations special rapporteur recently deplored the censure of a law adopted for teaching regional languages." He said.

 

While MEP François Alfonsi has always supported and shown his solidarity with the people of Ukraine, he wanted to throw some light on the "deplorable decisions" that certain countries are taken against the Russian-speaking minorities due to Vladimir Putin's aggression on Ukraine.