FUEN - Congress to take place in Slovenia in May – president announced his participation

The 55th FUEN-Congress will take place from 12 – 15 May in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana / Laibach. Yesterday the office of the president of Slovenia announced that President Danilo Türk will participate at the largest meeting of autochthonous minorities in Europe. Last year already a delegation of FUEN was in the capital of Slovenia and held talks, amongst others with president Danilo Türk.

The congress, in which circa 200 delegates of autochthonous minorities from 30 countries will participate, will be organised and implemented together with the member organisations of FUEN: the Gottscheer German minority in Slovenia and the Carinthian Slovenes in Austria. The patronage has been accepted by the President of the Slovene Parliament Pavel Gantar.

“During our visit last year we had an interesting insight into the minority policies of Slovenia, and it is unique in Europe that a country has a president who knows so much about minority issues, as president Türk does. We are very glad that the president will be participating in our congress, and even wants to play an active role”, said Hans Heinrich Hansen, FUEN-president. He referred to the fact that as a former adviser to the UN-Secretary General, the Slovenian president is very familiar with minority issues.

The lead subject of the congress is political participation of minorities in Europe. Already at the jubilee congress of 2009 in Brussels, the topic of opportunities for political participation of minorities was discussed; in Slovenia this subject from the FUEN-Charter will be further elaborated.

Furthermore the presidium of FUEN is up for election and the participants will visit the Gottscheer German minority.

Source: http://www.fuen.org/congress/2010/EN.html