Action Plan 
of the Members of the European Parliament 
for the Finno-Ugric Minorities in Russia

The Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian Members of the European Parliament have decided to take measures in order to implement the goals of the IV World Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples for improving the situation of the Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia.

The Finno-Ugric Members of the Parliament 

1. Urge the Council and the Commission to ask the Russian Government to improve the situation of the Finno-Ugric minorities by administrative and financial reforms and by encouraging the regional and local authorities to respect and promote the cultural and linguistic rights of the minorities. 

2. Urge the representatives of the European Parliament in the Joint Parliamentary Co-operation Committee with the Russian Parliament to open discussions on the problems of linguistic minorities in Russia and in the EU and of the action both parliaments could take in order to meet international standards in this field.

3. Urge the members of the Committee for Foreign Affairs and its Subcommittee on Human Rights to include the problems faced by the Finno-Ugric minorities in all resolutions dealing with Russia and with human rights in general. 

4. Urge the members of the Committee for Foreign Affairs to follow keenly developments among the Finno-Ugric minorities in order to draw the attention of the Committee and the Parliament as a whole to any mistreatment by the authorities; agree on tabling an Urgency resolution on the recent problems faced by the Mari minority. 

5. Urge members of the Committees on Culture and Budgets to call for allocation of appropriate resources for cultural and youth exchanges with the Finno-Ugric minorities, for providing them scholarships in the schools and universities of the EU member states and for providing them information on the international agreements on Human Rights in their own languages.

6. Agree on assisting the representatives of Finno-Ugric minorities in organising in the premises of the European Parliament an exhibition objectively portraying their situation in the Russian Federation. 

7. Agree on activating the Governments and the NGOs of Estonia, Finland and Hungary to initiate programmes under the new Neighbourhood Policy in order to improve on the grass-roots level the linguistic, cultural and socio-economic situation of the Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia. 

8. Agreed on sending a delegation to the next meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Finno-Ugric Peoples scheduled for 10-13 November 2005 in Syktyvkar to discuss possibilities for future co-operation.

26.4.2005