DAHR president Kelemen Hunor and EPP president Wilfried Martens met on Thursday in Bucharest, discussing the political role-taking of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, the Hungarian-Romanian political relations, and the rights and interests of the ethnic Hungarians living in Romania.

At the meeting the DAHR was also represented by Winkler Gyula and Sogor Csaba MEP’s, Korodi Attila, president of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Chamber of deputies, and state secretary Nagy Zoltan, head of the president’s cabinet. At the meeting, president Wilfiried Martens underlined that according to the standpoint of the European Peoples Party, the unified representation of Hungarian community is the only possible way in order to achieve its goals and interests. At the same time he considers of utmost importance the achievement of autonomy for the national minorities. “I was the leader of the Belgian government, when we reorganized the institutional system of our country, in order to ensure an equal autonomy to all three national groups.”- declared president Martens after the meeting. He added that he is extremely satisfied with the parliamentary, governmental and European parliamentary activity of the Alliance, and is confident that the Romanian public opinion is assessing this effort and its benefits. President Martens assured president Kelemen and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania of his entire support.

Kelemen Hunor, DAHR president stressed that during the meeting discussions were held on the most affective ways of solving the consequences of the economic crisis affecting all EU countries, and the upcoming EPP congress. “I asked president Martens to support our initiative to encase the rights of national minorities, the concept of autonomy and all those collective rights that we urged in the past years, into the Basic Programme of the EPP. We received a firm promise from the president in this sense. We also discussed the representation of the Hungarian community in the Romanian and European Parliament, and Wilfried Martens reconfirmed his message sent for the DAHR congress in February, that the Hungarian community needs a unified representation in order to maintain and strengthen its position, and to be able to take further steps enhancing the rights of national minorities. This is everybody’s interest. “- underlined Kelemen Hunor.

Romania’s accession to the Schengen was also a discussion point in the meeting. In this matter, as DAHR president Kelemen stressed “Romania cannot accept any further conditions, which exceed the frames of the agreement, since Romania fulfilled its technical conditions, and we expect that the EPP will handle this in the same way. I am confident, that this discussion remains open until the next head of state and prim-ministers meeting in October, and that we will be able to find a - even a two-steps - solution, that will be acceptable for Holland as well. At the same time, I hope that Holland will also understand that there are no second-rank states in the European Union.”

The president of the European People’s Party added, that yesterday, at the EPP ministers meeting, the conclusion was that at the next meeting of the ministers of justice and interior, they will try to convince Holland that a positive approach is needed regarding Romania’s and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession.