Minister visits Slovenian community in Serbia
Novi Sad/Niš, 13 May - Minister for Slovenians Abroad Matej Arčon started a multi-day visit Serbia on Sunday to meet representatives of the Slovenian ethnic community there. In Novi Sad he met representatives of the Slovenian associations from Vojvodina and Smederevo.
Ljubljana
Minister for Slovenians Abroad Matej Arčon.
Photo: Bor Slana/STA
File photo
On Sunday, the representatives from Ruma, Subotica, Zrenjanin, Vršac, Pančevo, Novi Sad and Smederevo presented the activities of their associations and the challenges they face.
The minister thanked them for their work, efforts to preserve the Slovenian language, culture and identity and for maintaining contacts with their motherland.
The minority representatives thanked Arčon for the financial support provided by the Office for Slovenians Abroad, which also granted additional funding to the association Emona Ruma, whose premises were destroyed in a fire last November.
State Secretary at the office, Vesna Humar, visited the site only a few weeks after the fire.
On his first day of the visit to Serbia, where some 10,000 Slovenians and their descendants are estimated to live, Arčon was accompanied by Slovenian Ambassador Damjan Bergant, the Office for Slovenians Abroad said in a press release.
Today the minister will continue his visit in Niš to meet representatives of associations from the south of the country.