FUEN meets European Commissioner Tibor Navracsics in Brussels

Yesterday, a delegation of FUEN – Federal Union of European Nationalities – led by President Hans Heinrich Hansen met the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics at the European Commission in Brussels. His remit also includes the area of minority languages.

Topics for discussion were a presentation of FUEN and its activities promoting the interests of the minorities in Europe, as well as a selection of concrete projects and how these could be politically and financially supported. Among these were first of all the citizens’ initiative Minority SafePack Initiative, the European language diversity campaign and also the EUROPEADA – the football championship of the autochthonous minorities that will take place in South Tyrol next year.

The interests of minorities are underrepresented in the European Commission. There are some possibilities for funding of concrete minority projects and their languages, but these are hard to implement. By giving a number of specific examples, the Commissioner got an overview of the wide variety and diversity of European projects of FUEN, which were convincing for him. He and his cabinet member Szabolcs Horvath responsible for multilingualism were very pleased with the new European Map of Minorities and Regional and Minority Languages. The necessity of such projects was not questioned. The implementation of these projects and the simplification of procedures would, however, bring great potential.

FUEN and the Commissioner committed to continue with some further actions. After the meeting FUEN will provide the Commissioner with a list of projects that are worth funding in the field of minorities, allowing these projects better access to support. Among these are the EUROPEADA, language projects such as the language diversity campaign, theatre/film festivals and also projects in the field of youth and new media. The Commissioner promised that as part of his job he would support minority issues and their European projects.

During the meetings in Brussels, President Hans Heinrich Hansen was accompanied by FUEN Vice President Loránt Vincze (Hungarian from Romania), legal/policy advisor Frank de Boer (Frisian), project manager of the language project language diversity Judith Walde (Lusatian Sorb) and project manager Eva Penzes (German from Hungary). The President of the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) Matic Germovšek (Carinthian Slovene) told about YEN and came with three specific demands and recommendations to the European Commission in the field of youth.

This meeting was the second time that FUEN spoke with a member of the Juncker European Commission, after FUEN talked with First Vice President Timmermans already in November 2014.