MINELRES: Fwd: Round table in the European Parliament: "Towards a resolution of the European Parliament on national minorities from the European Union

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Original sender: Roma Virtual Network <romale@zahav.net.il>


�Towards a resolution of the European Parliament on national minorities
from the European Union�

The Regional Center Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) for Central,
Eastern and Southeastern Europe from Bucharest, Project on Ethnic
Relations from Princeton and the European Parliament�s Intergroup on
traditional minorities, constitutional regions and regional languages
organized in Brussels a round table having as topic: �Towards a
resolution of the European Parliament on national minorities from the
European Union�.

The debate took place on the 7th of May 2008, at the European
Parliament, and brought together EP members, representatives of the EU
institutions, representatives from the member states� governments,
intergovernmental organizations and experts on minority policies.

As part of the series of conferences called �New approaches on the
issues of national minorities from the European Union�, launched in
December 2007, the round table focused on the idea of preparing a
resolution draft on national minorities from the European Union.

More specifically, the introductory speeches made by Livia Plaks,
President of PER, Csaba Tabajdi, President of the Intergroup, Attila
Marko, State Secretary at the Department for Interethnic Relations of
the Romanian Government and Gabriel von Toggenburg, senior researcher at
the Institute for Minority Rights, European Academy, Bozen/Bolzano
tackled, among other subjects, questions such as the potential role,
place and implications of such a resolution in EU law, or its connection
to Council of Europe and OSCE instruments of similar character.

The roundtable discussed also the issue of the possible main elements of
such a document, the role of the EP Committees and of the Intergroup in
the drafting and passing process, as well as the necessary preparatory
steps for having it drafted and passed in the European Parliament.

PER is a non-governmental organization with its center in Princeton, New
Jersey, USA and several offices in Central, Eastern and Southeastern
Europe and it has been working for the improvement of interethnic
relations in the region. PER has a rich past in initiating and
facilitating dialogue in interethnic issues of great importance.

For any additional information please do not hesitate to contact Ms.
Lilla Balazs, program coordinator, tel +40-21-223 2465, fax: +40-21-260
0922, mob. +40-727-735 531, e-mail: lilla.balazs@per.org.ro. 

DIVERS �
www.divers.ro

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