national minority self-government system in Hungary
The three-level – municipal, regional and national – representative forum of the nationalities living in Hungary declared in the Fundamental Law is the most important infrastructural guarantee of cultural autonomy of nationalities. The Hungarian system of national minority self-government is unique in Europe. While the states that recognise the community rights of nationalities primarily allow the right to self-organisation and supporting (funding) the social organisations that are created, Hungary has set up an independent system under public law. Its main element is that all forms of it are established by direct election, according to the will of the eligible voters who are entered on the national register at their request. Not only is this a statutory way of establishing it but it also has an important legitimizing role as a means of expressing the will of the electorate. In addition to the direct form of the establishment of national minority self-governments the current legislation also allows for an indirect form (transformation) in special cases. The special representative forums are constituted by Article XXIX of the Fundamental Law, and their public status and rules of operation are defined by Act CLXXIX of 2011 on the Rights of Nationalities. The national minority self-government has legal personality, makes decisions in the administration of public affairs, acts autonomously in the course of administration, acts as the owner of its property, independently prepares its budget and conducts budgetary management based on it. The municipal government provides the local national minority self-government with the personnel and material conditions for the operation of the self-government and ensures the performance of implementation tasks related to the operation, while the state enables the efficient provision of activities through task-based subsidies and tenders. The basic task of the national minority self-government is to protect and represent the interests of the nationality with different objectives and instruments at different levels. In addition to its advocacy role it can take over the operating right of cultural, educational and social institutions of nationalities thus realising the cultural autonomy of nationalities on the basis of personal principles, i.e. educational and cultural self-government. Legal regulations may also grant national minority self-governments the right to consent or comment which is always subject to judicial protection.