FUEN will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a congress in Brussels

At its first meeting of 2009 in Bolzano, the presidium of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) decided to organise the 60th anniversary of the largest umbrella organisation of the autochthonous national minorities on the European Day of Languages, which takes place each year on 26 September. The anniversary will be in Brussels within the framework of this year’s FUEN Congress.

The FUEN Congress will take place on 24-26 September 2009.

“By choosing the Day of Languages as the anniversary day for FUEN we want to give a signal. The languages and their survival are an essential part of the work of FUEN. We especially want to make sure that the small and smallest languages are not “forgotten” next to the larger regional and national languages”, says FUEN president Hansen.

“It is furthermore our goal to include the European Dialogue Forum at the European Parliament, the EU Commission and the Committee of the Regions in the congress. We are already in negotiation with the different political actors in Brussels”, according to Jan Diedrichsen, director of FUEN.

The leading theme of the congress will be the subject of political participation. Political participation is the third fundamental rights from the Charter for the autochthonous, national minorities in Europe – the document on principles of FUEN that was adopted in Bautzen / Budysin in 2006.

In previous years the fundamental right to Education (2007) and Media (2008) were elaborated and presented at the FUEN Congresses in Tallinn and Pécs.

Source: http://www.fuen.org/press/20090120_congress2009_EN.html