Last Friday, a delegation consisting of FUEN Vice President Loránt Vincze and FUEN advisor Frank de Boer were in Fryslân/Friesland, the Netherlands, to talk about cooperation with the Frisian vice-governor Jannewietske de Vries, who is also the president of the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD), and her advisor Alex Riemersma. 

“There is a need to unite our forces in Brussels. In FUEN, we work for the creation of a sustainable system of minority protection in Europe, which includes the protection of linguistic and cultural identity. NPLD is an important partner for us that also advocates the promotion of linguistic diversity and the use and education of regional and minority languages. A new European Commission was recently established and we are at the beginning of a new cycle of European funding programmes. There are chances to exert influence now, and our first experiences show that we can establish a constructive dialogue and working relation with the new Commission”, Loránt Vincze said at the meeting. Vice-governor Jannewietske de Vries too was very much in favour of joining forces in Brussels. Several areas of cooperation and a time schedule were agreed between FUEN and NPLD.

FUEN also used the opportunity to speak with its Frisian member organisation Ried fan de Fryske Beweging. Chairman Geart Benedictus and board member Pier Bergsma told about the challenges to the Frisian language, such as the creeping centralisation and scaling up of many administrative services. Another topic of discussion was the FUEN Congress of 2018, which will take place when Leeuwarden / Ljouwert will be the European Capital of Culture.

The visit took place following a meeting with Cor van der Meer and Marit Bijlsma of the Mercator Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, the leading partner of the Mercator Network of research centres in Europe. Van der Meer told about their current projects, such as e.g. the Open Educational Resources (OER) project and the series of regional dossiers with information about education in minority languages in Europe. Together we discussed about ways of cooperation that would enable the minorities active in FUEN to access and participate in the research and projects of Mercator.

The day was concluded at the New Year reception of the Province of Fryslân, hosted by governor John Jorritsma.

Photo: FUEN and Ried fan de Fryske Beweging