Interparliamentary Conference on Cultural Heritage and the Identity of Traditional National Minorities

Budapest, 4-5 December 2024

Overview of the conference

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Background notes

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Károly Pánczél, Chair of the Committee on National Cohesion

Dear Visitor,

I cordially welcome you on the occasion of the Hungarian presidency in the second half of 2024. The presidency, through interparliamentary cooperation, provides an opportunity for the directly elected representatives of EU citizens, and committee chairs to meet and exchange ideas.

Since 2010, Hungary has been paying particular attention to the national minority communities living in Hungary and to those with a Hungarian identity living outside the country's borders. Since 2011, a dedicated committee has been dealing with Hungarians living abroad, and since 2014, in addition to the fact that national minorities living in Hungary have preferential parliamentary opportunities and advocacy seats, they can also assert their interests in the committee representing national minorities. Since 2010, we have extended the Citizenship Act, and we provide every assistance to help our compatriots to be proud of their Hungarian nationality, wherever they may live in the world. The reunification of the nation across borders has been achieved.

It is important to note that indigenous national minorities are not second-class citizens; their communities have contributed to the enrichment of Europe's cultural heritage and rightly expect to preserve their identity and be recognised as state-building factors everywhere. Strong communities make strong states, and strong states make a strong Europe. It is important for all European citizens to reflect together on our past, our identity, and our communities for the sake of our European future, since securing the freedoms of Europe's national minority communities – some 50 million European taxpayers – still remains a challenge on our continent.

It is our common interest and responsibility to address indigenous national minorities on the basis of European values by understanding and incorporating our traditions and common interests.

The Interparliamentary Conference on Cultural Heritage and the Identity of National Communities, to be held in Budapest on 4-5 December 2024, provides a splendid opportunity for delegations from the Member States' Committees to be informed and to express their views on these issues. We look forward to welcoming you in Budapest!

Welcome Address by Imre Ritter, Chair of the Committee on National Minorities in Hungary

“Nationality and patriotism are the secret that unite everything. To develop the first as far as possible, to make the second a reality in all our hearts in our motherland, and thus to awaken a peaceful and quiet, but vibrant future for our country, is (...) our most sacred duty.”
Count István Széchenyi (Stádium, 1831)

Dear Visitor,

Five per cent of Hungary's 9.6 million people declare themselves as belonging to one of the 13 acknowledged minorities. In fact, in Hungary we do not talk about minorities, but about nationalities, but for the sake of simplicity and international clarity, let us stick to the term minorities. Slovenes are the smallest indigenous community in Hungary, and the Roma the largest. Other acknowledged minorities include Armenians, Ruthenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Poles, Ukrainians, Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Romanians and Germans.

The Committee on National Minorities in Hungary is the initiating, proposing, commenting and government monitoring body of the National Assembly, concerning the interests and rights of these almost 500,000 citizens. This work was carried out by 13 advocates in the 2014-2018 parliamentary term. Since the election of the Members of Parliament in 2018, the Committee has been operating with a full-fledged – German – national minority representative in addition to the advocates.

The task of the Committee is to resolve the problems of indigenous minorities in Hungary, to advance their issues, to pave the way for the achievement of our goals planned for the near and distant future, and to accelerate progress. This process of advocacy is truly multifaceted. It is up to us, as minorities, to formulate what is a matter of nationality policy. We must clearly demonstrate to the Hungarian National Assembly and the Government what we demand and expect, and what we can do for the development of our homeland, Hungary, in order to protect and further enrich the values we have jointly developed and established over the past centuries.

The conference entitled “Cultural Heritage and the Identity of National Communities” – to which I respectfully and cordially invite you – draws attention to the preservation of Europe's diverse cultural traditions, including the survival and development of the indigenous nationalities of Hungary.

Overview of the conference 

Documents

Background notes