German minority in Poland is supporting the citizens’ initiative

The board of the German minority in Poland, led by their chairman Bernard Gaida, had a meeting and several political talks in Berlin over the last few days. One of the subjects of the discussions was the involvement of the German minority in the citizens’ initiative that was initiated by FUEN together with the Hungarians in Romania, the South Tyroleans and the Youth of European Nationalities: one million signatures for the minorities in Europe.

“We will join in. It is important to show solidarity Europe-wide and to support each other as minorities. We have to prompt the European Union to do more for linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe”, said Bernhard Gaida after the meeting. The board of the German minority furthermore decided to invite all the minorities in Poland to participate in the citizens’ initiative. A conference in the Sejm (parliament) in Warsaw has been planned for this spring.

Apart from the citizens’ initiative, the programme in Berlin consisted of several talks with members of the parliament and with the two State Secretaries Christoph Bergner (Federal Ministry of the Interior) and Hartmut Koschyk (Federal Ministry of Finance).

In a statement, the board called upon the decision makers in Germany not only to continue with their current support but also to develop new strategies.

For more information, read the article on the internet portal of the Germans in Poland (in German).

The German minority consists of around 300,000 people and VDG – member of FUEN – is the umbrella organisation of the Germans in Poland. Circa five percent of the Polish population is part of one of the autochthonous minorities. Among them are e.g. Ukrainians, Germans, Belarusians, Slovaks, Czechs, Lithuanians, Roma and Jews.