The cardinal law includes several new features compared to the regulations which came into force in 1993 and it has been drawn up with aim of allowing nationalities to fully accomplish cultural autonomy.
The new legislation indicates changes already in its name: instead of minorities, it talks about nationalities. The Ministry of Public Administration and Justice which submitted the bill said this was in order to avoid thinking along the lines of minority against majority and instead highlight the values in cultural characteristics that national communities can contribute to Hungary?s culture as a whole.
The new law has also been prompted by the high number of abuses of nationality rights by those who were actually not members of the community. As a result, the new law states that, after 2014, only those towns and villages will be eligible to hold nationality elections in which at least 30 people declared they belonged to the given nationality, either as a primary or secondary identity, at a recent census.
Another condition is that at least 30 people must be listed in the nationality election list which will be public after 2014.
According to the ministry, these conditions will not pose difficulties to real national communities but they will be suitable to prevent abuses, for instance by those who set up nationality self-governments by way of a ?family enterprise.?
The new law will enable nationalities to acquire mandates with preferential conditions at the local council and ? under certain conditions ? the local self-government will be able to function as nationality self-government.
The number of nationality self-government representatives will be three, if less than 100 people are included in the national community list, and four if the number is above 100.
The law will also give certain media rights to communities by regulating the conditions and opportunities provided to nationalities to be presented in the public media.
The law specifies what constitutes a national community and an individual belonging to a nationality. Belonging to a nationality is any individual?s exclusive right that cannot be taken away. A new definition for national cultural autonomy has been included in the law and the notion of nationality organisation has been introduced in the context of nationality elections.
The law recognises the nurturing of historic traditions, language and culture, the use of community names and the use of national geographical names as nationality rights for communities. The rights for nationality education, setting up and operating new institutions, and maintaining international relations also belong in this category.
The law is expected to strengthen nationalities? rights to the use of their mother tongue. Languages used by nationalities include Bulgarian (Romani and Beas), Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Roma, Romanian, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Ukrainian, and in the case of Armenian nationalities Hungarian.
The new law also regulates issues of national cultural autonomy and stipulates the opportunities for education and cultural self-administration. It declares that the state supports the collection of objects identified as part of national culture, the etablishment and expansion of public collections, the publication of books and seasonal publications by nationalities, the promulgation of laws and public announcements in the mother tongue of nationalities, church services connected to family events in the mother tongue and religious activities by the churches in the nationality?s mother tongue.
The cardinal law is in accordance with the constitution which states in its preamble that Hungary respects the nationalities living in its territory, and considers them part of the Hungarian political community and a state-forming element.
Hungary is home to thirteen nationalities that have been present for several decades and have been also recognised in the outgoing law. They are Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Roma, Romanian, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Ukrainian.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
