- News
The official programme of the 60th FUEN Congress ended today (16.05.2015) in Komotini with the Assembly of Delegates.
This session of the highest FUEN body, moderated by vice-president Bernhard Ziesch, was attended by 30 organisations with voting rights and their delegations.
President Hans Heinrich Hansen and his fellow executive board members gave a summing up of what FUEN has been involved in, and Hansen was satisfied to conclude that these activities had yielded positive results.
With the continuation of our Minority SafePack Initiative, the opening of the office of the House of Minorities, the lobbying at European level and a series of top-level meetings with politicians, we are outing FUEN and the European minorities in the right position. And though we cannot be satisfied with how minority policy is handled at present, this will only motivate us to push our main political aims, such as a contact committee at EU level, all the more forcibly.
FUEN has already created the necessary framework conditions for this. In the last few months, under the leadership of our 39 year old secretary general, Susann Schenk, it has been possible to get FUEN out of the red and into a positive situation for the coming years. Several prestigious events have already been confirmed for 2015/2016.
In September 2015, the German-speaking Community will be hosting the new FUEN Advisory Council, and the FUEN Congress in May 2016 will be held in Breslau/Wrocław during its period as European Capital of Culture, and the governor of South Tyrol has invited the political policy makers of the European regions to the EUROPEADA in June 2016.
These are the ways in which we will be able step by step to establish a forum for the European minorities, said a confident Hansen. Another building block was added at the congress with the dialogue with other non-governmental organisations and the Intergroup for traditional minorities. We expect the court decision on the European citizens’ initiative Minority SafePack in the course of the year.
The assembly of delegates passed the congress resolution with the main demand for a contact committee at the EU. The delegates were pleased to note that the management of FUEN has been able to create the necessary prerequisites for opening their representative office in Brussels.
A result of the congress was the passing of a resolution on the situation in Greece and the situation of the Western Thrace Turks. FUEN thanked the three Western Thrace Turk organisations for their commitment.
The Macedonian association “Illinden” from Albania was welcomed into the FUEN family, along with the Assembly of nationalities of Ukraine, an umbrella organisation for over 50 minorities and ethnic groups, and the Moldavians from Ukraine.
Three other resolutions were also passed: from the Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia, from the Ecumenical Federation of Constantinopolitans, and the Aromanian Community in Romania.
Hans Heinrich Hansen thanked his very committed colleagues on the board, Martha Stocker, Olga Martens, Lorant Vinzce, Bernhard Ziesch, Halit Habip Oglou, Dieter Paul Küssner and Matic Germovšek, the member organisations, the FUEN Team and all sponsors for their support over the last year.
