Italy Raises Funds for Slovenian Minority
The Slovenian minority in Italy is set to get the first rise in funds from the Italian national budget in 16 years after the upper chamber of the Italian parliament endorsed on Thursday evening an amendment that increases the minority's annual budget by EUR 500,000 to EUR 5,250,000.
The amendment to the 2008 financial bill was put forward by Carlo Pegorer, a senator of the left-leaning ruling coalition Democrats, while the case was also campaigned for by Undersecretary Milos Budin, the first politician of Slovenian descent to have made it into the Italian government.
This positive development for the Slovenian ethnic minority in Italy comes after the 2001 law designed to safeguard it can finally be implemented now that the Italian authorities have recently endorsed a list of places that must enforce it. What is more, the regional parliament of Friuli-Venezia Giulia has passed a corresponding regional law.
The Italian government initially earmarked EUR 4,750,000 for the implementation of the 2001 law in 2008, an amount that has been the same for 16 years. Given the strong inflation in the aftermath of the 2002 changeover to the euro in Italy, the funds have actually declined in real terms.
Commenting after the amendment raising the funds was approved by the Senate Budgetary Commission last week, Undersecretary Budin said the rise of EUR 500,000 was especially important at a time of general economising and stringency measures.
The news was also welcomed in a press release by the Slovenian Cultural and Economic Union (SKGZ), one of the umbrella associations of the minority in Italy.
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