PRESS RELEASE

President will open the FUEN minority congress in Slovenia
Political participation in its different forms as central topic

FUEN (Federal Union of European Nationalities)
will organise its annual FUEN-congress in the
Slovenian capital of Slovenia from 12-15 May. Around 200 participants from circa 30 European countries are expected to come. The keynote speech will be given by the Slovenian president Dr. Danilo Türk. FUEN, the umbrella organisation of the
European minorities, has 86 members in 32
European countries. Last year FUEN celebrated its 60th anniversary in Brussels.

“We never before had the opportunity to welcome a state president at one of our congresses. We are glad and honoured by the participation of Mr. Türk. We also see it as recognition of our work. We critically follow the states and their minority policies – but we look for dialogue, because only in that way the relations between majorities and minorities can be improved. We look forward to the participation of the Slovenian president not in the last place because Dr. Türk is a renowned expert on minority issues in Europe. We are excited to hear his opening speech“, says Hans Heinrich Hansen, president of FUEN.

“In the last year we celebrated our anniversary; this year we want to work on our own organisation, on the development of FUEN and at the same time use the possibility to ask attention for the issues of the autochthonous minorities in Europe”, explains Hans Heinrich Hansen. According to the president of FUEN the situation of the minorities and language groups in Europe is noticeably deteriorating. “We clearly see a decreasing interest of the European states, concerning their minorities in terms of
protection and support – also in those states that normally like to praise their own system of minority protection”, according to Hansen.

Some extreme examples are the situation of the Poles in Belarus or the Roma in Kosovo / Kosova. “But to me at the present not only the blatant
violations of human rights are alarming. If we look at some well-established autochthonous minorities, the developments in the field of linguistic diversity and in regard to support for regional or minority languages, we must pay attention”, says Hansen.

With regret FUEN took notice of the dissolution of the second large umbrella organisation in Europe – EBLUL, which had to take the decision to dissolve itself because it did not find funding to continue its work for the regional and minority languages. “That is very regrettable. Some of our members have also been active in EBLUL. As the only remaining
umbrella organisation in Europe we will deal even more intensively with the issue of regional and
minority languages as well”, says Hansen.

Next to the topic of internal structure of FUEN, the congress will deal with political participation. The Fundamental Right to Political Participation, the document that was discussed in Brussels in a first reading, will be adopted and in workshops and
discussion rounds its will be more thoroughly
discussed based on concrete examples.

Furthermore the whole FUEN presidium is up for election and because there are more candidates than positions, an exciting election is expected.
“The fact that there is much interest to become active in the presidium is a healthy sign for an umbrella organisation. We have many plans for the future and want to become better – closer to our members and create a strategy together how we can better use our resources and become more effective in
representing the interests of the minorities in
Europe”, explains Hans Heinrich Hansen, who stands up for re-election as president.

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