Meeting about the Working Group of German Minorities (AGDM) in Berlin

During an extraordinarily hot meeting in the premises of the Ministry, the German Federal Commissioner for Issues Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities Hartmut Koschyk MP and the representatives of the AGDM (Working Group of German Minorities), FUEN and the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) discussed the activities of the Working Group of German Minorities. The Working Group, which is organised under the umbrella of FUEN, is preparing the upcoming annual meeting in Berlin in November this year.

In the presence of FUEN (and IVDK: Germans in Russia) vice president Olga Martens, AGDM-chair Koloman Brenner, VDG (Germans in Poland)-chair Bernard Gaida and DFDR (Germans in Romania)-director Benjamin Jozsa had a debate about upcoming projects, cooperation and their expectations. The meeting was also attended by FUEN secretary general Susann Schenk and Project manager Eva Penzes.

The main topic for discussion was the preparation for the annual meeting of AGDM in 2015, which will be in Berlin from 9-12 November. On 12 November a conference by the Commissioner will take place in the Federal Ministry of the Interior. It has been confirmed that the German foreign affairs minister Steinmeier will meet the participants at the conference.

There was a lively exchange of opinions about the latest meetings and visits by Hartmut Koschyk MP to the German minorities and to politicians, e.g. in Austria and in Slovakia. Koschyk underlined the importance of AGDM and FUEN as the European umbrella structure for minority issues.

Further topics discussed at the meeting were therefore the anticipated installation of a AGDM coordination office in Berlin, the FUEN Congress of 2016 in the European Capital of Culture Breslau/Wrocław, the House of Minorities and institutional funding for FUEN.

After the discussions a joint meeting about the German schools and education outside Germany.and cooperation with the German minorities took place. This meeting was attended by representatives of the foreign affairs ministry, the conference of education ministers of the Germany lands and the world association of German schools abroad.