The Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) held its next annual congress in Leeuwarden/Ljouwert, Friesland, the Netherlands between 20-23 June. The key message of the event was the need for adopting the pact between minorities and majority societies in Europe, aimed at safeguarding the identity of autochthonous national minorities, halting their assimilation, and allowing them to manage their cultural, educational and linguistic affairs independently, in the framework of local authority institutions.
According to the text of the pact, the FUEN encourages the majority societies of European countries to listen to the voices of national and linguistic minorities, as well as their needs, without prejudices in order to achieve truly equal rights for them.
The Assembly of Delegates authorized the FUEN Presidium on Saturday to choose, after having received the confirmation of the authorities of the member states, the most appropriate time for the submission of the more than 1.3 million signatures collected for the Minority SafePack initiative to the European Commission to achieve the success of the initiative, taking account of the rapidly changing political situation in Europe. As regards the authorization, the signatures for the initiative may be submitted to the new European Commission that will be constituted following the European Parliament elections due next year. The Assembly of Delegates has decided that the next annual congress of the increasing and increasingly dynamic organization that will be 70-year-old next year and provides direction for the protection of minorities at European level will be held in Košice/Kassa, Slovakia in 2020.
(www.mkp.sk, 27 June 2018)
