- Communiqués de presse - The European citizens’ initiative of the minorities in Europe receives wider and wider support. At a meeting with representatives of the ethnic groups in Austria, cooperation was intensified. The meeting was attended by FUEN-President Hans Heinrich Hansen, the Vice-President of the Hungarians in Romania László Borbély and the Director of the Ethnic Group Centre Hubert Mikel (see photo).
At the FUEN Congress, which will take place in June in Brixen, South Tyrol, the European citizens’ initiative will be focused on.
Under the umbrella of FUEN the minorities in Europe want to seize the opportunity to use the citizens’ initiative to pressure the European Union into doing more for cultural and linguistic diversity and to strengthen the autochthonous minorities. One in every seventh European citizen belongs to an autochthonous minority or is speaking a regional or minority language.
The leader of the Ethnic Group Centre in Vienna, Hubert Mikel, emphasised the importance of this new form of cooperation. “It will not be easy to collect the required number of signatures in Austria. But we will take this task seriously. The citizens’ initiative offers for us, ethnic groups in Austria, a good chance to raise awareness for our situation and to make clear that together with many other minorities in Europe, we represent a significant force that has to be taken seriously”, said Mikel.
In FUEN, the Burgenland Croats are represented by Hrvatsko kulturno drustvo u Gradiscu / the Croatian Cultural Association in Burgenland and by Hrvatski centar / the Croatian Centre in Vienna. The Carinthian Slovenes are represented as members by Narodni Svet Koroških Slovencev / Council of the Carinthian Slovenes and by Skupnost koroških Slovencev in Slovenk / Community of Carinthian Slovenes.
