Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-24-Speech-3-334"
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"en.20071024.39.3-334"2
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"Thank you for the opportunity to speak, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome this report, and believe that the version adopted by the Commission is a particularly good and balanced one. Serbia’s prospects for European Union membership are especially important for Hungary. We have a fundamental interest in seeing our neighbour admitted into this Community as soon as possible. This represents the only alternative for reconciliation as opposed to inter-ethnic strife, war, and discrimination against people or humiliating them because their mother tongue or customs happen to be different.
Obviously, we are not indifferent to the fate of Serbia’s Hungarian ethnic minority, and indeed we have made an effort to keep the issue of Vojvodina on the European agenda. Something that is very important, and I am glad to see that it is in the report, is to draw attention to the need to maintain the multi-ethnic character of Vojvodina that has evolved over many centuries. The basis for this multi-ethnicity is the coexistence of different ethnic groups, the kind of coexistence that is based not on silence and humiliation, but on genuine equality before the law and equal opportunities. At present, unfortunately, this is not part of day-to-day reality there.
I believe it is particularly important to maintain the region’s ethnic balance and its special characteristics, and, in my opinion, resettling Serb refugees in this region would jeopardise chances of maintaining this precarious balance and could exacerbate inter-ethnic conflict. We have already seen a good many ugly examples of such conflict in the recent past. In this connection I would draw your attention, for example, to a case that remains unresolved to this day: the fate of the ethnic Hungarian youths who were given a disproportionately severe sentence in a clear-cut example of ethnic discrimination in Temerin. All in all, therefore, the Balkans need the European Union, because the spirit, principles and institutional system of the European Union, and the fact that it is consistent – and I lay particular emphasis on the latter – will be able to bring about a life that is liveable. Thank you very much."@en1
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