In our address, „Latvia Has Fallen”, published on our community page on September 16 this year, we shared the bad news that the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Latvia validated only 5395 statements of support, leading to Latvia dropping out of the eleven states, where the number of statements of support for the citizens’ initiative for national regions exceeded the lower threshold. We also indicated that we had asked the competent Latvian authorities for further information, and were considering a way to pursue legal remedy. On September 21 2021, we received a detailed, precise and correct response from the Central Election Commission. Their response lists the different categories of invalidated statements of support, including 775 from supporters who reside in Latvia but do not have Latvian citizenship. Validating these statements, would have been sufficient for the threshold to be reached.

                        Latgale (Eastern Latvia)

Conversation with Izsák Balázs, President of the Szekler National Council

On 22 June 2021, the Spanish government passed a decision to release the imprisoned Catalan politicians. This decision is called partial pardon, which means the remainder of their prison sentences is erased, they are however barred from public affairs.

Jens Stoltenberg warned NATO members and the whole world of a new danger: the rapprochement of Moscow and Beijing. According to the Secretary-General, the North Atlantic Organization applies a dual method of approach to Russia: intimidation and dialogue.

The European citizens’ initiative (ECI) "Cohesion policy for the equality of regions and sustainability of regional cultures" has gathered over 1.4 million signatures and has very good chances of becoming the 7th successful ECI in the history of this still relatively new legal tool. As the deputy (substitute) representative of the organising citizens committee of this ECI, in this article I hope to share some of my views on the prerequisites for organising a successful ECI.

Minden emlékezésnek az ad értelmet, ha egy közösség – felmérve az elmúlt idők történelmi tanulságait – újabb célokat fogalmaz meg. Ha a visszatekintés emelkedett pillanata egyben alkalom a jövőtervezésre. Ma Trianonra, a trianoni békediktátumra emlékezünk. Száz egy évvel ezelőtt e diktátum következtében terjesztette ki Románia állami fennhatóságát Erdélyre és ezen belül Székelyföldre is. Százegy évvel ezelőtt veszítette el Magyarország jövőformáló képességét, döntéshozó jogát az elszakított országrészek fölött. Nézzük meg hogy ez pontosan mit is jelent ma. A lehetséges válaszok sorából egyet fogok kiragadni: az Európai Unió költségvetésében és az újjáépítési alapban Magyarország mostani népességével arányosan részesedik. Az Erdélyt, Székelyföldet megillető kohéziós és újjáépítési alap Romániát illeti.

According to Izsák Balázs, the slogan „We mobilize Europe for Szeklerland!“, used since 2013 can now be put in past tense. The President of the Szekler National Council (SZNT) spoke about this at a press conference held in Sepsiszentgyörgy on Friday with the occasion of the midnight closing of the collection of signatures in support of the European Citizens' Initiative on national regions.

The European Commission has formulated a number of questions for its interactive conference scheduled for 28 April. Below are answers to these questions by Izsák Balázs, representative of the citizens' committee of the citizens' initiative for national regions.

On 8 March, the European Parliament will pronounce in plenary session on suspending the right of immunity of three Catalan politicians, Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati, the representatives of JUNTS Per Europa. This decision takes place after the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs has succumbed to pressure from Spain and accepted the request for the suspension of immunity.

Today, on the 25^th of October, on the Day of Szekler Autonomy we Szeklers – together with other communities standing in solidarity with us – convene in order to repeatedly assert our demand for the territorial autonomy of Szeklerland.

The magnitude of this demand, which is based on international law, is larger this year than it was a year ago. The European citizens’ initiative of the Szekler National Council has received over one and a quarter of a million supporting signatures across Europe. The population of our kin-state, Hungary, is fully united behind the initiative, together with other Hungarian minority communities. The signature collection process, which is still open, attracts more- and more supporters from Spain, mainly Catalans, and Basques, and the numbers of supporting signatures are also going up in Sweden, thanks to the Sami communities, and the local Hungarian diaspora.

After Veneto and Silesia, we are putting Szeklerland in the spotlight this month. Attila Dabis is also on the speakers' list of the ICEC conference in the European Parliament postponed to 2021.

Most of our readers may scratch their hair when hearing about Szeklerland. Time for an insightful interview.

Dear Mr. President!

On 14 May, we asked you to examine the video message of Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis, in which he incited against Hungarians, and to withdraw the decision to award him the Charlemagne Prize, as the Romanian President has proven unworthy of this award.

On 7 April 2020, we addressed a written request to the European Commission to extend the deadline on the collection of signatures for the citizens' initiative for the protection of national regions. In this request, we asked for a six month extension of the deadline, so that this six-month period begins when the restrictive measures taken due to the pandemic in most Member States are lifted.

European Union – The Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga announced yesterday, May 20, that the European petition launched on the initiative of the Szeklers in favour of European national regions – one of whose spokespersons, Attila Dabis, we recently interviewed – obtained an additional six months delay for collecting missing signatures in at least four countries.

Petition on the Day of the Szekler Liberty

To The Government and Parliament of Romania

For his information: to Mr. President Klaus Johannis