German state secretary Stephan Mayer: FUEN always had and will have Germany’s support

In his keynote speech at the FUEN Congress 2019 German state secretary in the Ministry of Interior and Development Stephan Mayer congratulated Hartmut Koschyk on receiving the FUEN Prize. He also congratulated FUEN on its 70th anniversary, saying that in an age when nationalism and populism are on the rise again there is a great need for organizations such as FUEN. He also praised the work done within AGDM, the German Working Group inside FUEN and the role of the four national minorities in Germany in strengthening the German society as a whole.

„Democracy, security and peace can be sustained in Europe only if the minorities are secure, and they can cultivate they language, culture and identity. Majorities are obliged to support the minorities in this” – said Mr. Mayer at Dunajska Streda * Dunaszerdahely, adding that there are two important components to achieve this: strong minority organizations and state support and protection.

The German state secretary repeated his support for the Minority SafePack Initiative, adding that FUEN always had the support of Germany and the German government, and the same also applies to this initiative. He said that contrary to some political opinions he does not believe that the implementation of a legal framework for the protection of minorities at the EU level would take away from the importance of the tools of the Council of Europe, and that in his opinion the MSPI would be complementary to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages.

Collecting more than one million signatures is a huge achievement, and the MSPI needs to be implemented in the European Union – he said, adding that he will closely follow the new European Commission to see how the proposals of the SafePack are going to be implemented as legislative acts.