The presidium of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) came together for the first meeting in the new year in Bolzano / Bozen, South Tyrol / Italy from 7-9 January.

A satisfied president Hans Heinrich Hansen makes up the balance: “We can be very happy with the start of the new year, which is a jubilee year for FUEN. The meeting went well in a very good atmosphere. It is nice to see that the voluntary members of the presidium are active and have pleasure in the work they do. We have defined our priorities. With the “Network for Multilingualism and Linguistic Diversity in Europe” that we presented during a press conference with the South Tyrolean governor Durnwalder, we gave ourselves the first birthday present of the year”, said Hansen. He underlined that the network will strengthen the profile of FUEN in the field of language promotion in a substantial way, especially in regard to the small and smallest languages. The fact that for the first time an EU-application was accepted with a volume of circa 500 000 Euro enhances the joy amongst the leadership of FUEN.

The presidium decided to celebrate the anniversary of FUEN in 2009 during the European Day of Languages on 26 September in Brussels. The FUEN Congress will take place on 24-26 September. “By choosing the Day of Languages as anniversary day for FUEN we want to give a signal. The languages and their survival are an essential part of the work of FUEN. We especially want to make sure that the small and smallest languages are not “forgotten” next to the larger regional and national languages”, says FUEN president Hansen. The leading theme of the congress will be the subject of political participation of minorities in Europe.

The European Dialogue Forum, which was established together with the president and co-president of the Intergroup for National Minorities of the European Parliament, Csaba Tabajdi (PSE) und Michl Ebner (EPP), is on the top of the agenda of FUEN. “We will work hard to have a constitutive meeting in the beginning of this year. We are convinced that the new formalised cooperation between Parliament and FUEN as umbrella organisation of the autochthonous, national minorities will be a significant step for better political participation of the minorities on the European level”, according to Hansen.

“Our plans for 2009 are very ambitious and we have many activities ahead of us. The first working meeting of the presidium and the secretariat makes me confident that at the end of the year we will be able to say that we have brought FUEN a big step further on our journey supporting the many autochthonous, national minorities in Europe”, according to an optimistic president, speaking directly after the presidium meeting.

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Press conference in Bolzano: Fl.t. r: Dr. Martha Stocker, Hans Heinrich Hansen (both FUEN), governor Dr. Luis Durnwalder.