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Hungary, Austria and Italy may open debate on stateless nations
Bruxelles / Brussel 29/10/03, by Alexia Bos Solé

Hungary, Austria and Italy may open debate on the lack of recognition of the European stateless nations in the future EU Constitutional Treaty

According to the Basque online service news, Izaronews; Hungary, Austria and Italy gave their support to the recognition of the collective right of the Europe of nations in the future constitutional text. Moreover, in an interview with Radio Euskadi the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, László Kovács, admitted that the proposal of these three countries could open a huge debate in Brussels, since they are also for an explicit recognition of the rights of national minorities.

László Kovács also stressed the importance of leaving a door open to recognition of the right to self-determination of the Hungarian communities in Slovakia and Romania.

‘In our proposal we speak about the rights of national and ethnic minorities, these are the exact words. We do not use anymore the term collective rights’ said Mr. Kovács in an interview for Radio Euskadi.

Concerning the position of the Italian state, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, on behalf of the Italian Presidency, assured that the proposal is supported by the Italian State.

‘There are countries like Italy and Austria which have already expressed explicitly their agreement with this idea … but I have to say honestly that some states have already given a negative answer in writing on the issue’, stated Mr. Frattini

This is the case with some of the Baltic Republics with a large percentage of Russians in their population, and also the case of Spain. Stateless nations such as the Catalans or Basques have claimed for a long time for this kind of recognition without any favourable response from the Spanish government. According to Izaronews, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ana Palacio, was unavailable for comment on this proposal.

At a separate meeting in Poitiers on 27-28 October the Franco-German Conference on Regional Cooperation issued a communiqué on the feeling of a ‘European identity’ and how this identity had to respect the plurality of cultures, languages and ways of life of the Union. (Eurolang)