The Secretary General of the Council of Europe visits FUEN in Flensburg

On his visit at the FUEN (Federal Union of European Nationalities) in Flensburg the Secretary General of the Council of Europe argued for a strong protection of minorities on an European level. According to Terry Davis, minorities and nationalities are of great importance particularly with regard to the actual situation in Georgia and in Kosovo.

“The FUEN's work as a civil society organisation of the minorities in Europe is of great importance. I really hope that the cooperation between the Council of Europe and the FUEN will be further strengthened in the future”, underlined Terry Davis, who pointed out the relevance of the national equalization in his personal statement.

The vice president of the FUEN, Heinrich Schultz, started by welcoming the Secretary General to a round-table-discussion. Jan Diedrichsen, FUEN staff member, gave an overview of the actual work of the FUEN on the European level and pointed out the particular relevance of the Council of Europe for the work for minorities.

The FUEN has a consultative status in the Council of Europe, works for the INGO-cooperation and just recently obtained an ad-hoc-observer status at the DH-MIN committee for minority concerns. Furthermore, the FUEN engage in the actual preparations of the 10th anniversary of the Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities.

The FUEN-representatives and the Secretary General discussed potential cooperation-projects with the Council of Europe in the open discussion and arranged further discussions in Strasbourg.

Terry Davis, who had to shorten his visit because of the actual situation in Georgia, concluded: “I will come again, soon.”
Terry Davis became af patron of the annual minority-marathon YOU-MM thanks to Wolfgang Wodarg (member of the parliamentary convention of the Council of Europe and member of the German Bundestag).

This event was prepared in cooperation between the FUEN and its member-organisations BDN and SSF of the German and Danish minorities. The “Frisians”, the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) as well as several representatives from Germany also participated in the round-table-discussion.