Slovenian Minority Organisations Assess Their Work as Good
The SLOMAK coordinating body of the Slovenian minorities in Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia held its first all-minority assembly on Friday in Ljubljana at which participants agreed that SLOMAK had done a lot in the first four years since its establishment in January 2004.
SLOMAK chair Rudi Pavsic of the Slovenian minority in Italy told the assembly, which was also attended by Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, that the organisation had become "more united and more self-confident". Still, he was also critical of certain problems experienced by minority groups.
Pavsic said that SLOMAK had had a "very fruitful period full of personal experience". He added that Slovenia was not aware enough that the minority was a constitutive part of a body the state could benefit from. According to him, Slovenian minorities could play a role of facilitator and initiator.
Minister Rupel meanwhile said that the care for minorities was an "important foreign policy priority" for Slovenia, and that he was consistently pointing out minority issues in his talks with foreign officials.
Touching on the status of the Slovenian minority in neighbouring countries, Rupel said that the Slovenian minority in Italy was an example of "good relations within the minority through the cooperation between the main organisations and joint efforts when it comes to essential issues."
Regarding the Slovenian minority in the Austria's Carinthia, the minister said that unity and a joint strategy of the minority at least in key issues would undoubtedly make it easier for Austria and the international organisations to find solutions to open issues.
Speaking on the behalf of Slovenians living in Italy, the head of the Council of Slovenian Organisations (SSO) Drago Stoka pointed out the importance of the recent passage of a minority protection law, which will now be enforced in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
The deputy president of the National Council of Carinthian Slovenians (NSKS) Karel Smolle meanwhile focused on the issue of bilingual signs. He announced that minority officials will soon file new complaints at the Austrian Constitutional Court and that they will bring up "the Carinthian issue" also during Slovenia's EU presidency.
Marjan Sturm, the president of the Association of Slovenian Organisations (ZSO), said that one also should look at positive minority aspects, pointing out that 40% of children in the south of Carinthia were enlisted for bilingual classes, 70% of them coming from German-speaking families.
The president of the Association of Slovenians Living in Austrian Styria, Susanne Weitlaner, added that about 250 children in the province was learning the Slovenian language.
Darko Sonc, the head of the Association of Slovenian Societies in Croatia, meanwhile said that Slovenians in Croatia are primarily concerned about the relations between Slovenia and Croatia. "Joining SLOMAK made us feel stronger," said Sonc.
The head of the Association of Slovenians in Hungary Joze Hirnoek focused on unfulfiled expectations of Slovenians in Hungary. Despite annual sessions of a relevant Slovenian-Hungarian commission, the status of the Hungarian minority in Slovenia is far better than that of Slovenians in Hungary, he said.
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