"Summit" about the citizens' initiative in South Tyrol

To collect one million signatures in Europe to induce the European Union to devote much more attention to the issue of the autochthonous inorities and regional or minority languages in Europe, that is the common goal of FUEN (the Federal Union of European Nationalities - the umbrella organisation of the autochthonous minorities in Europe), the South Tyrolean Peoples's Party (SVP) and the Democratic Alliance of the Hungarians in Romania ((RMDSZ) and the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN).

In order to move ahead with this undertaking, which is without exaggeration the largest pan-European project of the autochthonous minorities so far, the three main actors will meet in Bozen/Bolzano in the beginning of next week. The president of the hungarians in Romania, Hunor Kelemen, will come to South Tyrol. His party, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, which also functions as the collective movement of the Hungarians in Romania, received 5.15 percent of the votes (about 380,000 voters) at the parliamentary elections a few weeks ago and is now represented with 18 members in the Romanian parliament.

Together with the president of FUEN - Hans Heinrich Hansen - who is a German from Nordschleswig, Denmark, the next steps will be discussed in a meeting aith the governor of South Tyrol, Luis Durnwalder. For decaades SVP has been an important supporter of and active force in FUEN.

At the meeting the question of how to include all the interested minorities and regional or minority language communities in Europe will be discussed. According to Martha Stocker, regional accessor in Trentino-South Tyrol and FUEN vice precident responsible for the European CItizens' Initiativem there is already a very high demand on the part of the member organisations of FUEN to participate in the initiative.

The campaign to collect one million signatures will start at the FUEN Congress of 2013, which will take place in Brixen, South Tyrol, from 19 till 23 June. The campaign will be concluded during the elections for the European Parliament in the summer of 2014.

With 94 member organisations, FUEN is represented in more than 30 European countries. FUEN's presidium will also meet in the beginning of the week for its traditional first meeting of the year in Bozen/Bolzano.