The organizers of the European citizens' initiative launched for the protection of national regions submitted almost 900,000 statements of support to the National Electoral Office (NVI) for verification, the NVI announced.

The collection of signatures for the European citizens' initiative called Cohesion Policy for the Equality of Regions and the Sustainability of Regional Cultures launched by the Székely National Council started on May 7, 2019. In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the European Commission has repeatedly extended the deadline for the citizens' initiative, which thus became May 7, 2021.

The organizing group submitted the statements of support from Hungary, collected on paper and online, to the NVI for verification after the collection deadline of May 7. The NVI received all the documents on Monday. The majority of the approximately 900,000 signatures to be checked were collected in electronic form, the NVI wrote.

The NVI has three months at its disposal to thoroughly examine all supporter statements in accordance with the provisions of EU and Hungarian legislation. After the inspection, the NVI issues a certificate of the number of authentic signatures, which it sends to the initiative's contacts, who forward it to the European Commission.

The NVI announced that the Cohesion Policy for the Equality of Regions and the Sustainability of Regional Cultures is the 11th European citizens' initiative whose statements of support collected from Hungary are verified by the NVI.
László Pesty, the campaign chief of the initiative, previously spoke about the aim of the European citizens' initiative, that the central bodies of the European Union treat national regions and indigenous national minorities with special attention, and that indigenous minorities can directly benefit from EU cohesion resources for the preservation of their language and culture.

The legal institution of the European Citizens' Initiative enables the citizens of the European Union to directly request the European Commission to present a legislative proposal in the area of ​​its competence. The citizens' initiative must be supported by signatures of at least one million EU citizens from at least seven of the 27 EU member states. In each of the seven member states, the minimum required number of signatures for the given country must be collected.

MTI

Cover image: Photo: MTI - Zsolt Czeglédi