German State Secretary Stephan Mayer visited FUEN in Flensburg

Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Development and Community Stephan Mayer visited the FUEN offices is Flensburg on Tuesday, 18 June 2019. This was the State Secretary’s first visit to Flensburg/Flensborg.

Newly elected FUEN vice presidents Gösta Toft from the German minority in Denmark and Bahne Bahnsen from the North Frisian minority, along with the FUEN Staff members welcomed Mr. Mayer. The representatives of FUEN Member organisations SSF of the Danish minority in Germany, Jon Hardon Hansen and BDN, the organisation of Germans from Denmark, Hinrich Jürgensen were also present at the meeting.

After an introduction of the current situation of minorities living in the German-Danish border region, the work of FUEN was presented.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior, Development and Community  is a main financial supporter of FUEN‘s work for many years. It is all the more pleasing that the State Secretary took a visit to our headquarters in Flensburg after confirming the good co-operation and the importance of the FUEN by attending last week’s 70 Year Anniversary Congress in Bratislava/Pressburg/Pozsony. “FUEN always had and will have the support of Germany and the German government, and the same also applies to the Minority SafePack Initiative” – said Mr. Mayer in his speech at the Congress.

At his visit in Flensburg, Mr Mayer once again expressed his open-mindedness and goodwill towards the Minority SafePack. In his view, the MSPI can enrich the standards of minority protection in the EU.

Mr. Mayer was invited to join the FUEN Forum of European Minority Regions, which will take place at the end of this year, to advocate for the MSPI with the European regions, which are one of our key stakeholders and partners. Mr. Mayer was also invited to visit the German-Danish border region again in 2020, which marks the 100-year jubilee of the border setting, with lots of different events planned to take place.

FUEN would like to thank Mr. Mayer for his visit at Flensburg and for the generous support of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Development and Community.