FUEN: Press release on the House of Minorities Project in the Borderregion

During the last years the establishment of the House of Minorities in Flensburg has been a leading project of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN). The umbrella organization aimed to position the German-Danish border region as an exemplary minority region, to use the existing expertise of the minorities in the region and their European commitment as a knowledge center and trendsetting development of local factors in the whole German-Danish region. The plans for the project, envisioned by FUEN and its partners Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger (BND) and Sydslesvigsk Forening (SSF) go back to 2013, but the project came to a halt when SSF backed out of the initiative in 2018.

The last proposal presented by the FUEN in January 2019 was a long-term plan based on the idea of founding the House of Minorities under the umbrella of a new legal entity, a consortium of content partners and financial partners. In this sense, all partners would have been equally represented in the project and would initiate the next steps of implementation. Unfortunately, the document has been sent out to the public ignoring all the facts of the project.

On the 23 January the FUEN was informed by the SSF that they decided to reject the proposal due to financial concerns. The sudden change of the SSF position is more incomprehensible since in the meeting held on the 9 January in the House of Minorities Office all the minority organization leaders in the Borderregion stated their support for the continuation of the project, and the FUEN was in the middle of financial negotiations with the city of Flensburg, Land Schleswig Holstein and the German Federal Government.

FUEN regrets the decision of the SSF. The final and irreversible withdrawal expressed by the leadership of the SSF brought the House of Minorities project in the Borderregion to a dead-end, since FUEN considers the enclosed support of all minority communities from the Borderregion as crucial for the project.

However, the FUEN remains committed to the idea of establishing a European institution and physical building to function as a knowledge, training, documentation centre and common roof for all national minorities in one of the European minority regions. We also aim to stay in close partnership with the city of Flensburg and Land Schleswig-Holstein on common cooperation projects in the Borderregion.