Brussels, 27/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 27 May, the petitions committee of the European Parliament received two petitions submitted by Hungarian nationals regarding, firstly, arrangements for rescinding Slovakian citizenship (a problem facing certain Slovakians wishing to become Hungarian) and, secondly, the infamous “Benes decrees” adopted shortly after the Second World War by the founder of the former Czechoslovakia, Edvard Benes.
Both of these petitions were presented by several Hungarian and Slovakian MEPs, members of the EPP group, who wish the petitions to be seen in the context of the row currently raging between Budapest and the European Commission, and who called on Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding to note what they describe as discrimination against Hungarian citizens.
The first petition, which was presented by Zoltan Lomnici, former president of the Supreme Court, attacks the law on Slovakian nationality, which states that nationals who adopt the citizenship of another member state automatically have their Slovakian citizenship revoked. This provision constitutes an attack against the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and an article of the Slovakian constitution which declares that nobody can be deprived of their Slovakian citizenship against their will. The second petition, which was submitted by Imre Juhasz, a constitutional court judge, concerns the resolution adopted by the Slovakian parliament in 2007 which states that the decrees made by President Benes are unquestionable and inviolate. These decrees have justified the expulsion of around three million Germans and Hungarians from Slovakia.
Both of these petitions were examined behind closed doors on Monday afternoon. On the morning of the same day, two MEPs from the EPP Group, Hungarian Agnes Hankiss and Slovakian Alajos Meszaros, together with the signatory of the first petition, called upon the European institutions to tackle these issues and to uphold the “rights of Hungarians”. They also called on Reding to show the same energy she deployed “against the Hungarian constitution”. (SP/transl.fl)