The Szekler National Council’s European Citizens’ Initiative

Abstract

The Szekler National Council decided to lodge a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) with the objective of initiating EU legislation concerning the rights of autochthonous people and ethnic groups living in the European Union, and in particular, their right to self-determination. The title of the proposed citizens' initiative was Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures. The subject mater of the initiative is that the cohesion policy of the EU should pay special attention to regions with national, ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics that are different than those of the surrounding regions. The ECI focuses on an additional factor within cohesion policy, namely, the 'national regions'. The initiative was rejected by the European Commission with reference to the fact that there is no appropriate legal basis in the Treaties for adopting the respective legislation, i.e. the initiative falls outside the scope of the EU. The ECI initiators brought an action for the annulment of the European Commission’s decision before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The General Court published its decision on the case on the 10th of May 2016 rejecting the applicants' action. The judgement underlined that in order to file the initiated legislative act the Court must define the term 'national regions' and also list all existing regions in the EU, which fulfil the requirements of this definition. Furthermore, this legislative act must declare that Member States shall fulfil their obligations deriving from their international commitments and any eventual breach would be concomitant with the breach of the values listed in Article 2 TEU.