FUEN Presidium members had constructive dialogue with the German Foreign Office during the AGDM meeting

During the 27th Annual Meeting of the Working Group of German Minorities in the FUEN (AGDM), which took place between 5-8 November in Berlin, FUEN Vice-Presidents Olga Martens and Halit Habip Oglu took part as representatives of the FUEN in an expert discussion on education and culture in the Federal Foreign Office as well as in the ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the Federal Government Commissioner for Germans Abroad and National Minorities.

The meeting at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany with Ministerial Director Heidrun Tempel, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Education, Research Policy and Foreign Cultural Policy as well as representatives of the Goethe Institute and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifA), served as an exchange of ideas for the future development and cooperation in the field of innovative educational and cultural policy for German minorities.

FUEN Vice-President Habip Oglu stressed the importance of solidarity between FUEN's member organisations and said that through the exchange of models and best practices other minorities can also benefit from the AGDM and that it is therefore important to work together in solidarity under the umbrella of FUEN to improve the situation of all minorities. The most important projects for future cooperation were defined as the expansion of the educational offer and the digitisation of language courses for German minorities. FUEN Vice-President Martens also suggested raising awareness and making accessible the literature of German minorities or authors belonging to a German minority in the state of Germany.

Based on the constructive discussion, the member organisations of AGDM will in future cooperate more closely with the Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe Institute and the IfA and continue the intensive exchange of ideas in order to launch many educational projects in the future.

In the afternoon, a ceremony was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Germans Abroad and National Minorities. AGDM spokesman Bernard Gaida and Karl-Peter Schramm, Chairman of the Council of Minorities of Germany, also delivered greetings on behalf of their institutions. In addition, numerous representatives of the member organisations of FUEN as well as employees were present at the ceremony.

On behalf of the Federal Government, the Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of the Internal Affairs, Prof. Dr. Günter Krings, welcomed the guests. The former Parliamentary State Secretary and former Commissioner of the Federal Government for Germans Abroad and National Minorities, Dr. Christoph Bergner as well as the current Commissioner of the Federal Government, Prof. Dr. Bernd Fabritius emphasized in their speeches the great importance of this office, which was in the past a great support for the concerns of the national minorities in Germany as well as the German minorities outside Germany.