Assembly of Delegates adopts resolutions appealing to big politics

Day three of the FUEN Congress is traditionally dedicated to the more than 100 member organisations: At the Assembly of Delegates, the past year is looked back on and resolutions for the future are passed.

At the Assembly of Delegates, the FUEN Congress Main Resolution 2023, which is divided into two parts this year, was adopted. On the one hand, it appeals to the need for intensive consultations with national minorities and, on the other hand, to the protection of national minorities in Ukraine. 

It states: “FUEN urges policymakers to re-assess the existing consultative channels through which they engage into a dialogue with autochthonous national minorities. The existing consultative arrangements have to be reinforced for a more meaningful minority-majority exchange.” Specifically, it calls for the establishment of a permanent consultative body under the auspices of the European Parliament. In addition, FUEN is appealing to the European Commission to reconsider its decision to reject the Minority SafePack Initiative (MSPI).

FUEN would like to use this year's 30th anniversary of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) to call on him to pay more attention to cooperation with minority organisations, to deepen his partnership with FUEN and to make more resources available to support the empowerment of minorities.

FUEN Vice-President Gösta Toft discussing the resolutions.

In the second part of the main FUEN resolution on the protection of national minorities in Ukraine, FUEN again "FUEN strongly condemns war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Russian occupational forces on the territory of Ukraine" and "Urges the authorities of Ukraine to develop inclusive post-war minority policies and approach ethnolinguistic diversity as an asset of the Ukrainian society and as an integral part of the all-Ukrainian identity."

In addition, ten other resolutions were adopted:

• on the recognition of Catalans and the other autochthonous linguistic communities in Spain as national minorities and their inclusion in the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM).
• on Greece's acceptance of the Muslim-Turkish presence in Rhodes and Kos, the reopening of schools with bilingual education and the cessation of the destruction of mosques, tombs and cemeteries
• on the discourse on othering and stigmatisation of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace in Greece
• on the amendment of the legislation on Russian kindergartens and schools in Estonia
• on Georgia's accession to the European Union
• on the importance of the rule of law for minority rights in the European Union
• on improving the written use of minority languages
• on the inadequate implementation of minority rights in Austria
• on the role and priorities of the FUEN
• on the role of the FUEN and especially on challenges of the member organisations

In addition, the following decisions were taken:

The FUEN Congress 2024 will take place in Husum/Hüsem, Germany. It will be hosted by our FUEN affiliate Frasche Rädj/Friesenrat Sektion Nord, which represents the North Frisian minority. The date of the event is expected to be 19-22 September 2024.

Leader of the Assembly: FUEN Vice-President Bahne Bahnsen. 

The Assembly of Delegates admitted five new members to FUEN:

• The Cultural Institute of Brittany (Skol Uhel Ar Vro - Institut Culturel de Bretagne) from France.
• The Radgenossenschaft der Landstrasse from Switzerland
• The National Self-Government of Rusyns in Hungary (Вседержавноє Русинськоє Самосправованя - Országos Ruszin Önkormányzat).
• The Humanitarian Society of German Minority “St. Gerhard” from Serbia
• Friulian Philological Society (Societât Filologjiche Furlane „Graziadio Isaia Ascoli) from Italy (as a supporting member organisation of FUEN).

Welcome to the FUEN family!