The new bill on nationalities in Hungary has been submitted to Parliament. A wider range of rights to use one’s mother tongue, and to culture and education; less opportunity for abuses in the name of nationality rights; strong legitimacy and genuine presence within communities: these are guaranteed by the legislative proposal on nationalities, submitted to Parliament by Tibor Navracsics, Minister of Public Administration and Justice.

The legislative proposal was prepared by the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, following wide-ranging public consultation lasting more than one year. This started in August 2010, and there has been an ongoing negotiation with leaders of the national self-governments of ethnic minorities. In spring this year a group of professionals was formed in association with the Deputy State Secretariat for Church, Civil Society and Nationality Affairs, and in the summer all thirteen ethnic minority self-governments signed the Strategic Partnership Agreement with the Ministry.

National ethnic minorities are a constituent part of the state

The new cardinal Act on this issue will be the successor to the Act of 1993 on National and Ethnic Minorities, which was amended several times; this is in line with the new Fundamental Law of Hungary, which declares the following in its preamble: ‘The nationalities living with us form part of the Hungarian political community and are constituent parts of the State.’ Hungary is home to thirteen nationalities which have been present in the country for centuries and which are already recognised by the current Act. These nationalities are: Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Roma, Romanian, Carpatho-Rusyn, Serb, Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian.

The Act regularises the fundamental rights of ethnic minorities and individual and communal rights, and rights related to education, culture and media. It provides a more precise regulatory framework than has existed up to now for the election, operation and management of nationalities’ self-governments; their legislative, financial and economic supervision will also be resolved by the introduction of appeal rights. In addition to this, the legislative proposal aims: to assert nationalities’ rights at national and international levels; to summarise their experiences; and to systemise, summarise and make transparent substantive law in various fields. It also has the goal of introducing provisions which serve to eliminate certain undesirable phenomena in the public life of nationalities.

The legislative proposal defines the concept of a community of a nationality, and that of an individual belonging to such a community. It is an exclusive and inalienable individual right to proclaim one’s membership of a nationality.

It also makes it clear, however, that rights and obligations are granted to the individual and community of a nationality if they proclaim their identity in a way defined by legislation.

As a new definition, it also gives a clear description of the concept of the cultural autonomy of nationalities and of the organisation of nationalities related to general elections among nationalities: this has been lacking in legislation up until now. In connection with the general elections of nationalities, according to the new definition a nationality organisation is an association for the public good, a stated aim in the founding statute of which is to represent a specific nationality as listed in this law.

Strong rights related to language, culture and education

The Act acknowledges the following as community rights of a nationality: its historic traditions; its language; its culture and the cultivation and development of its culture; the use of names; and the use of names for geographical areas. It also covers nationality rights related to education, rights related to accreditation for the creation and running of institutions, and to international relations.

The rights of nationalities related to the use of their mother tongues will be strengthened. For example, bilingual documents will be available for local public administration purposes, and minutes in the mother tongue for sessions of self-governments of nationalities will be officially recognised. According to the legislative proposal the following languages of nationalities will be acknowledged: Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Roma languages (Romani and Beash), Romanian, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Ukrainian. For the Roma and Armenian nationalities, Hungarian will also be recognised as a mother tongue. Regulations related to the use of names in the mother tongue will also be more specific.

The legislative proposal also regularises the cultural autonomy of nationalities and self-governance related to education and culture. It also lays down that the state will support: nationalities’ collections of relics; the establishment of public collections and their enlargement; publication of books and periodicals of nationalities; introduction of laws and public announcements in their mother tongues; church services related to family events (e.g. weddings and christenings) conducted in the languages of the nationalities; further religious activities of churches in the mother tongue.

The legislative proposal specifies regulation on the handover of educational and cultural institutions of nationalities and on the facility management of self-governments. As a new element, the proposal includes a detailed regulation on media rights. The new proposal enshrines the right to acquire information in one’s mother tongue from both print and electronic media. It regularises the obligations of the public media service provider related to nationalities and defines means for the state to support the production of TV programmes about nationalities available in their languages, and to support related publications.

Data collected during the national census for statistical purposes and processed by the Central Statistics Office can be used to define conditions of legal practice related to nationality rights.

Nationality self-governments, nationality elections

The legislative proposal restores the restructured form of nationality self-governments at settlement level.

Nationality self-governments shall operate in the future as legal persons with independent budgets, thus making it possible for them to have transparent budgetary schemes and financial strategies; their legislative, financial and economic supervision will also be resolved by the introduction of appeal rights. The relationship between nationality local self-governments and local councils, which is not clearly regulated at present, shall be made more precise and detailed, and necessary appeal rights will be guaranteed.

Every nationality is entitled to form a self-government. Election of nationality candidates shall fall on the same day as local council elections. Nationality local council elections – at local, county and national levels – shall be direct and simultaneous. Nationality local council elections shall be based on census data.

A county (or Budapest) nationality election, however, can only take place in settlements where a nationality has a genuine presence in the community, in which at least thirty people from the nationality are registered in each of at least ten settlements or districts. An interim election is possible at settlement, regional (county/Budapest) and national levels.

Those indicated on the residential electoral rolls are entitled to take part in nationality self-government elections. A public and continuously administered electoral roll will be introduced as a new element.

A condition of active electoral rights – the right of people to vote in nationalities’ elections – is that the citizen has the right to vote in local elections and declares membership of the nationality in question.

The legislative proposal restores the legal institution of the preferential mandate for nationalities. In other words, for a candidate from a nationality to be elected to the council of a settlement with a preferential number of votes, he or she must receive at least two-thirds of the number of votes cast for the normally elected candidate with the least number votes, provided that:
in the given settlement members of nationalities form more than half of the population; at least 50% of voters are indicated on the electoral roll of the nationality in question; and none of the nationality candidates gain office in either the mayoral election or the local council election.

With regard to elected nationality representatives, however, passive electoral rights will be subject stricter conditions than in the current legislation. On the one hand, only a voter with Hungarian citizenship belonging to the nationality can be a candidate in local council nationality elections, and on the other hand as a new element it will be mandatory for a candidate to declare that he or she did not run for election in either of the previous two general nationality elections, representing another nationality.

The main goal at both settlement and regional levels is for nationality self-governments only to be formed with the existence of a community background which is verified by genuine census data. At the same time, however, the national representation of the given nationality shall be guaranteed if the nationality cannot form a self-government at any other level.

The Act includes a number of new provisions which guarantee the fairness of nationality elections. For example: an organisation nominating a nationality candidate can only be an organisation for the public good; and nationality local self-government elections can only be held where according to the census data there are at least thirty people from the given nationality registered.

As a result of the measures, the Government hopes for the emergence of nationality self-governments with greater legitimacy, and genuine community backing.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)