Visiting Istria and Karst on Tuesday, Prime Minister Janez Jansa met representatives of the Italian national community in Slovenia. Jansa concluded that a lot had been achieved in the two years since the last meeting and added that one of the challenges ahead came in the form of the legislation introducing provinces.
Jansa, accompanied by Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti and Stanko Baluh, the head of the Government Office for Nationalities, said that the formation of provinces in regions with the Italian or Hungarian minority would have to take into account their constitutional role.
He said that some problems could not be resolved over night and were still being tackled. "We are also facing some new challenges which will require cooperation so that the position of the Italian community can become stronger," Jansa said.
Turning to the resolution on minorities, Jansa said that this was a very important document which was still in the phase of harmonisation after its drafting had been protracted.
Asked how he explained the fact that the last census showed the number of the members of the Italian minority falling by 700 in 11 years, Jansa said that one of the reasons for this should be ascribed to the specific timings of the two censuses in question.
Another fact diminishing the gravity of this finding, according to Jansa, is the significantly lover drop in the number of Slovenian citizens declaring Italian as their mother tongue.
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