Around 160 visitors from 25 European countries
participated in the 55th FUEN Congress in the
Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. With the presence of the Slovenian President Dr. Danilo Türk, for the first time FUEN succeeded in attracting the highest representative of a state for the opening of the
congress. In his speech the president, who many years has been working as political adviser to UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan, praised FUEN as “the most important organisation representing the minorities on the European level”. The president gave a lecture and afterwards discussed with the participants.

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and European Union Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr. Valentin Inzko, who himself belongs to the Carinthian Slovenes and is in his function head of government of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, also visited the participants of the FUEN Congress on his way to Sarajevo. Moreover several members of the EU Parliament,
representatives of the Council of Europe and the minorities in Slovenia participated during the opening of the congress.

“I am very satisfied with how the congress went. We are especially happy that so many chairmen,
secretaries general and other high-ranking
participants from our 86 member organisation have been present this year. During intensive talks we agreed that together we will push on with the
development of our organisation. FUEN is a political organisation and wants to become more effective and represent the interests of the minorities in a
professional way, together with its members”, said Hans Heinrich Hansen, the president of FUEN.

“It is important for us that we not only organise a representative congress but also foster the contacts with our members intensively. Therefore of course we also visited our members, the Gottscheer
Germans. It is impressive to see under which difficult circumstances they are doing their work with much enthusiasm”, according to Hansen. The German minority is not recognised as such in Slovenia. In a unanimously adopted resolution the Assembly of
Delegates demanded the recognition of the Gottscheer Germans as autochthonous minority. In regard to the two recognised minorities – the Italians and Hungarians – Slovenia belongs to the model states of Europe. On the national level there are for example guaranteed seats in the parliament and extensive self-government provisions and support measures for the minorities.

During the congress the FUEN-delegates intensively dealt with the Fundamental Right to Political
Participation and adopted this document in third
reading. Afterwards in a working session a
discussion took place on how this Fundamental Right, which summarises the main demands and rights of minorities in the field of political
participation, should further be used. FUEN was supported scientifically by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI).

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