Justice Minister Judit Varga has called on the European Commission to grant the organizers’ plea to extend the ethno-regions signature drive deadline in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak, which hindered them in collecting the signatures in seven different member states.
Minister Varga noted in a Facebook post that the council had won a lawsuit against the EC, which had “refused to green-light” the initiative.
According to MTI, the minister said granting the extension “may make good on [the EC] dragging its foot on the matter for years".
Romania’s Szekler National Council managed to collect one million signatures by Wednesday night to support their petition aimed at ensuring European Union protection for ethnic regions across the community, the initiative’s campaign chief told public broadcaster M1.
However, László Pesty said that further signatures were needed from four other countries to meet criteria under which the European Parliament puts the petition on its agenda.