European Parliament creates Intergroup to defend national minorities, 'constitutional regions' and regional languages.
Davyth Hicks ym Mrwsel (Brussels) 11/12/2004 The European Parliament has created an Intergroup on Thursday (11th November) to preserve and promote "national minorities, constitutional regions and regional languages".
ALDE (Liberal group) and CiU MEP Ignasi Guardans has been designated Vice-President of this Intergroup with the support of other Catalan and Basque nationalist deputies. Mr Guardans said that "it is very positive that nationalists can work together in the European Parliament in their common goals". More than forty MEPs will take part in this working group.
According to the Intergroup's constituent document, the aims of the Intergroup are the promotion of the rights of national minorities, the development of constitutional regions and of "nations without States, as in the case of the Catalans". It will also focus on the promotion of regional languages. According to the document, "the Members of the European Parliament are responsible for ensuring that Europe is a continent where minority groups flourish in safety".
Intergroups are cross-party Parliamentary working groups recognized as an official way to work in areas of particular interest. They are integrated into the wider framework of the European Parliament.
Eurolang tried to contact both Mr Garriga and Mr Guardans to ask what the effect would be on the existing regional and minority language intergroup, but they were unavailable. (Eurolang)
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