Submission and examination
Minority SafePack – one million signatures for diversity in Europe was submitted to the European Commission on 10 January 2020, having gathered 1,123,422 statements of support. See press release.
The organisers met with European Commission Vice-President for ‘Values and Transparency’, Věra Jourová and Commissioner for ‘Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth’, Mariya Gabriel on 5 February 2020.
A public hearing took place at the European Parliament on 15 October 2020. See press release.
The initiative was debated at the European Parliament’s plenary session on 14 December 2020. In the resolution adopted on 17 December 2020, the European Parliament expressed its support for the initiative. See European Parliament’s press release.
The Commission adopted a Communication on 14 January 2021 setting out how existing and recently adopted EU legislation supports the different aspects of the Minority SafePack Initiative. The reply outlined further follow-up actions. See press release.
Answer of the European Commission and follow-up
Official document:
Main conclusions of the Communication:
Inclusion and respect for the rich cultural diversity of Europe is one of the priorities and objectives of the European Commission. A wide range of measures addressing several aspects of the proposals of the initiative have been taken over the last years since the initiative was originally presented in 2013. The Communication assesses each of the nine individual proposals on its own merits, taking into account the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. While no further legal acts are proposed, the full implementation of legislation and policies already in place provides a powerful set of measures to support the initiative’s goals.
Follow-up
The Commission monitors the implementation of a number of EU initiatives adopted before the submission of the ‘Minority SafePack’, which are directly relevant for the citizens’ initiative. It also continues to conduct policy actions in these areas. For example:
- The Commission implements funding programmes in the areas of culture and education (notably Erasmus+) which are fully accessible for small regional or minority language communities. Several examples of projects promoting regional and minorities languages funded by the Erasmus+ and Creative Europe programmes can be found in the 2024 publication ‘Linguistic diversity in the European Union’.
- As regards rules on EU funding more generally, the Commission has reinforced compliance with the fundamental rights in the EU funds. The Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) setting out rules for the 2021-2027 budget contains an ‘enabling condition’ requiring Member States to ensure compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the non-discrimination principle when disbursing EU funds covered by the CPR. These will continue to support socio-economic integration including that of marginalised communities, vulnerable groups including ethnic minorities, in line with priorities and needs identified by the Commission and the Member States.
- Concerning research opportunities, ‘Horizon Europe’, the current Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027), and its implementation programmes offer, in particular under Cluster 2 ‘Culture, creative and inclusive society’, research opportunities in relation to cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe. Research on national minorities or cultural and linguistic diversity may be carried out from different perspectives and using methodologies from different social sciences and humanities. Opportunities for research on linguistic diversity will be continued throughout the entire lifetime of the Horizon Europe programme, i.e. in the work programmes 2025-27.
- As regards the initiative’s proposals related to the audiovisual media services, namely to ensure freedom to provide services and the reception of audiovisual content in regions where national minorities reside, the Commission monitors the application of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Directive 2010/13/EU, AVMSD) and also the particular application of the rules on the promotion of European works. The report on the application of the AVMSD Directive, covering the period 2019-2022, was published in January 2024. It confirms that the AVMSD remains an essential instrument to govern the Union-wide coordination of national legislation for all audiovisual media and that the ‘country-of-origin’ principle has facilitated the cross-border transmission of television channels and video-on-demand (VOD) services. The report on the application of the rules on the promotion of European works, covering the period 2020-2021, was published in June 2024. The new rules requiring on-demand services to secure at least 30% share of European works in each of their catalogues have been gradually introduced by Member States, contributing actively to the objective of promoting cultural diversity within the Union.
- As regards the initiative's proposals related to geo-blocking, in follow up to the first short-term review of the Geo-blocking Regulation, the Commission organised, in 2021 and 2022, a dialogue with the audiovisual sector to agree on concrete steps to improve the availability of and access to audiovisual content across the EU. The final meeting of the dialogue took place on 6 December 2022. More information can be found in the event report. The Commission presented the outcome of the dialogue in the 2024 stock-taking exercise on the implementation of the Geo-blocking Regulation.
- Regarding the promotion of linguistic diversity in the field of regional and minority languages, the Commission is further developing its cooperation on this subject with the Council of Europe’s European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML). Notably, a colloquium on Strengthening support to regional and minority languages within a plurilingual context was co-organised with the ECML in November 2023. Detailed case-studies are being produced, with the aim of building a repository of best practices.
- Finally, linguistic diversity in Europe, including regional and minority languages, is promoted in relation to the European Day of Languages or the European School Education Platform. The European Day of languages in 2024 presented and discussed the results of the most recent Eurobarometer on “Europeans and their languages”. One of the results was that 85% of European citizens considered that regional and minority languages should be protected.
Other information
In a judgement of 9 November 2022 (case T-158/21), the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the request of the organisers' group of 'Minority SafePack' to annul the Commission Communication C(2021) 171. The court held that the Commission has not erred in law nor infringed its obligations to state sufficient reasons in its communication, in which the Commission stated that no further legislation was necessary at this stage to achieve the objectives sought by the ECI.
More information in the Press release on the judgment
The organisers filed an appeal against this judgment with the Court of Justice on 21 January 2023.
