Parliament voted on Monday to adopt the Hungaricum Act with a consensus between the four major parties by 304 votes for and with only five abstentions from the LMP. According to the definition of the Act, a Hungaricum denotes a value worthy of emphasis that represents the highest quality of Hungarian product with its characteristically Hungarian attributes, uniqueness, special nature and quality.

The adoption of the law on Hungarian national values and Hungaricums is a new milestone in Hungarian legislative constitution, and aims at protecting our items of value. The Act was prepared with the help of broad social debate; the Ministry of Rural Development responsible for elaborating the bill assimilated many of the hundreds of comments and remarks that arrived from various social institutions, non-profit organisations, and centres of science and ethnography into the text of the bill. From now on, the new Act will provide the framework for the surveying, preservation and registration of our intellectual and cultural treasures, our traditions, emblems and unique products.

Hungarian items of national value include objects that are closely connected with the Hungarian nation and people, intellectual and cultural assets, customs, emblems, and works of art that embody our national identity. The Act makes it possible for the treasures of nations that co-inhabit with the Hungarian peoples living in the Carpathian Basin to be included among the heritage under preservation. Hungarian folklore is also an inexhaustible treasure chest of values that require protection and preservation. Our customs, traditions and our folk music all embody the Hungarian entity.

Special committees collect and select our national values and Hungaricums on the basis of the so-called "Hungarian National Heritage Pyramid", a system built from the bottom up. The surveying, identification and collection of values begin at a settlement level, because local people know local values best. Local historians, museologists, ethnographers, teachers, experts and local patriots have in several places already prepared the list of local values, which may be continually augmented. Local governments will prepare the county and regional value repositories based on the local value repository model.

In future, Hungaricums will be denoted by a trademark. Our national values will be registered by the National Values Repository, operated by the Hungaricum Committee. Recognised public figures sitting on the board will decide on the registration of national values and Hungaricums into the National Values Repository. Only the best and most characteristic Hungarian values from the Hungarian Value Repository, the Hungaricums, will receive the Hungaricum trademark.

Items of national value, including Hungaricums, improve our reputation, and increase our esteem within the European Union and throughout the world. The presentation and promotion of our values on a broad level both at home and abroad is of great significance with regard to the recognition of our economic, cultural and intellectual performance, and of our natural and man-made treasures.

The reinforcement of Hungarian national identity in the interests of the conjoining of Hungarian communities both within and beyond our borders, and the legislative regulation of the registering of our intellectual, scientific, cultural and artistic values is the settling of a long overdue debt on the part of lawmakers.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)