Open Letter to Ms. Kinga Gál, Member of the European Parliament

Dear Madam Member,

The future of national regions is our common cause. On 10 July, at the plenary session of the European Parliament, you clearly articulated what a broad range of supporters of this initiative have been demanding for years: the issues of communities living in national regions cannot be addressed with fine words and abstract debates alone – concrete action is needed.

The areas you spoke about – including the region of your father’s birthplace – face the same problems in many parts of Europe. Their young people are forced to leave, as they do not enjoy equal opportunities and their future is uncertain. Their cultural values and traditions are endangered every day, while the investments needed to prevent natural disasters are lacking.

The Commission has the necessary tools: cohesion policy and the possibilities of legislation. What is missing is political will. But this absence is not a statistical entry or an abstract concept; it is a failure that affects the daily lives and future of real people. Your concise and to-the-point summary of the situation of the national regions is credible, and your criticism of the Commission is entirely justified.

This open letter is also an opportunity to thank you for the assistance you have provided over the years. Thanks to your invitation, in April 2018 we were able to present the citizens’ initiative in the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages, known as the Minority Intergroup. This was the first presentation of the struggle for national regions in the European Parliament. At that time, the lawsuit for registration was still pending before the EU Court, and the collection of signatures was still a distant and uncertain hope. Your invitation then gave the organisers encouragement, faith, and courage to continue the fight. We thank you for this!

These lines form the seventh part of a series of open letters, all carrying the same message: more than one million EU citizens demand that the issue of national regions finally take its rightful place in the European Union’s policies. It is time for this request to become more than just a document – it must be turned into real, tangible change.

I wish you continued good and successful work, and at the same time I would like to stress that, beyond a strong national consciousness, it is a shared system of values that unites us: Europe’s treasure is its diverse but indigenous national, linguistic, and cultural heritage, and it is only through these that we can truly call ourselves European.

Târgu Mureș, 14 August 2025
Balázs Izsák
President of the Szekler National Council