The regional government of Italy's Friuli Venezia-Giulia on Friday adopted a bill to safeguard the Slovenian minority in the region. The bill now needs the green light from the regional parliament, which is expected to discuss it in the autumn.
The bill guarantees the right to communicate with regional institutions in Slovenian, envisages special offices for communication with minority members in Trieste, Gorizia and Cividale, and stipulates the correct writing of Slovenian first names, surnames and town names.
It also sets down measures to facilitate the election of Slovenian minority representatives to the regional parliament as well as to provincial and municipal councils, and confirms the existing regional fund (this year worth EUR 300,000) as a means of funding minority activity.
If endorsed, the new legislation will apply to entire Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with certain provisions valid only in areas in which the Slovenian minority has been traditionally present, Primorski dnevnik reports on Saturday.
The proponent of the bill, Roberto Antonaz, who is in charge of education and culture in the regional government, believes this piece of legislation is a political and moral obligation to the Slovenian population of Friuli Venezia-Giulia.
Based on a premise that the minority is the region's historical and cultural heritage, the bill builds on the Italian law on the protection of the Slovenian minority (which however has not yet been implemented) and on relevant European minority regulations.
In its commentary, the Trieste-based minority newspaper says that with the bill the regional government of the Friuli Venezia-Giulia governor Riccardo Illy has delivered on one of its election promises.
It adds that the act sets legal and practical basis for the relations between the region and the minority, which are generally dependent on political affiliations and the good or bad mood of various governments.
Since the centre-right opposition The House of Freedom has already expressed its opposition to the bill, the commentary is nevertheless somehow sceptical about its future.
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