Full agenda for the participants of the 24th Annual Meeting of the FUEN Working Group of German Minorities: important meetings in Berlin

Today, 12 November 2015 is the last day for the participants of the annual meeting of the Working Group of German Minorities in FUEN (AGDM) in Berlin. After three intense days in Berlin the representatives of the German minorities have the opportunity today to speak with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In the afternoon they will participate in the conference “Home – Identity – Belief”, for which they were invited by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Matters Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities Hartmut Koschyk MP. The German Minister of the Interior will give a keynote speech at this conference.

Over the past days there have been many meetings in the German capital. On Monday the representatives of the German minorities were at a round table discussion together with the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) about the presence of the German minority online and in the new social networks. It is important to form networks and to reach new target groups in the home countries of the minorities and also to increase visibility in Germany. Otto Heinek, the chairman of the Self-Government of the Germans in Hungary stressed the importance of additional measures. Also the majority population should be addressed more effectively – this is an important prerequisite for the minority to achieve a positive perception of the minorities.

On Monday evening the participants of the AGDM Annual Meeting were invited for a reception at the Embassy of the Republic of Hungary. The envoy, Dr Katalin Karsai, told in her welcome speech that the Hungarian constitution refers to the minorities as “state building actors”, who are called upon to contribute to the state and the society. The President of FUEN, Hans Heinrich Hansen, looked back and thanked Hungary for the role it played in overcoming the division of Europe in the important year 1989. Today, however, Hansen noticed that the House of Europe has deep fissures and cracks. Now comes an crucial moment for the minorities of Europe, who counted together are a seventh of all the Europeans: either we succeed in bringing about substantial improvements in the legal regime for minority protection and in its practical implementation or the subject will fade away from the European agenda for a longer period.

On Tuesday there was at first an internal meeting on the agenda and afterwards talks took place in the German Federal Parliament. The representatives of the German minorities has meetings with the different rapporteurs responsible for the budgets for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior in order to have an exchange of information and opinion.

Of the 21 representative organisations of the German minorities in Europe that are member of AGDM, 19 were represented. The President of FUEN, Hans Heinrich Hansen, used the opportunity to demonstrate the necessity of receiving institutional funding. The importance of FUEN was not long ago underlined with the request from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support the Federal Government during the German Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2016. Foreign Minister Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier chose minority policy as one of the main topics of the chairmanship. FUEN is willing and capable of making a contribution, but it cannot do this at zero cost. German Federal Commissioner Koschyk supported Hansen’s arguments and noted that politicians unfortunately rely too much on external academic expertise and are make too little use of the rich wealth of experience that the national minorities and their organisations have.

The rapporteur for the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Socialist Group, Doris Barnett MP, reaffirmed the importance of the work both of FUEN and also of the German minorities for minority protection in Europe and promised to continue to support it in the future. The rapporteur of the Conservative Group, Alois Karl MP, referred to the additional funds that were adopted last year for the German-language schools in Romania and promised to increase the budget for the coming year from 750,000 Euros to 1 Million Euros. The two rapporteurs used the chance to receive information first-hand about the situation of the German minorities in their home countries. 

In the next meeting, with the two rapporteurs of the coalition parties for the budget of the Ministry of the Interior, Martin Gerster MP and Dr Reinhard Brandl MP, the representatives of AGDM and Commissioner Hartmut Koschyk together stressed the necessity to continue the funding provided for the AGDM-Coordination Office in Berlin, which was establish this summer. AGDM-Speaker Dr Koloman Brenner called it “a very important step forward” for the organisation and the representatives mentioned several concrete examples of where they had been supported by the Coordination Office. After intense discussion on the situation of the minorities in their respective home countries the two budget rapporteurs expressed their gratitude and respect. Mr Martin Gerster and Dr Reinhard Brandl pointed to the strict rules of budgetary discipline. Yet they want to promote the cause of the German minorities in the on-going discussions on the budget.

Afterwards an exchange of information and thoughts took place on the promotion of the cultural heritage of the Germans in the East of Europe with the unit leader for the remit of “History and Remembrance” at the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, Head of Section Ansgar Hollah. 

On Tuesday evening the representatives of the German minorities were invited in the Representation of Baden-Württemberg in Berlin, where the Minister of the Interior of the Land of Baden-Württemberg, Reinhold Gall, hosted the representatives of the Working Group of German Minorities in FUEN. According to the Minister of Baden-Württemberg, it is very important to him to foster and promote dialogue and cooperation with the German minorities. For that reason Minister Gall regularly is traveling to the home regions of the German minorities in Central and Eastern Europe. On behalf of the AGDM its chairman Koloman Brenner thanked Minister Gall and praised the commitment of the Land of Baden-Württemberg in regard to the German minorities in Central and Eastern Europe.

Together with the German Federal Government Commissioner for Matters Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities, Hartmut Koschyk MP, on Wednesday at first a dialogue took place about the strategy for the Working Group of German Minorities and afterwards an internal meeting in which the Work Programme for 2015/2016 was discussed. Furthermore there were talks with the World Association of German Schools Abroad and a presentation of the YOU.PA grants programme of the Otto Benecke Foundation for young persons belonging to a German minority in Central and Eastern European countries. On Wednesday evening the day was concluded together with representatives of the youth organisations of the German minorities and the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN).

Programme AGDM-Jahrestagung