Council for Slovenians Abroad addresses numerous topics at maiden session

Talking to the press after the session, Golob said that Slovenia will strive to help Slovenian communities and their organisations through dialogue with state and local authorities not only in terms of finance but also regulation.

Golob said the meeting determined that territorial cooperation was most suitable for economic cooperation, with Minister for Slovenians Abroad Matej Arčonj elaborating in a separate statement later on that European associations for territorial cooperation were institutions that can bring a territory closer together and include the Slovenian minority.

In terms of finance, Golob said ways will have to be found for Slovenia to help organisations that face financial hardship.

Listing several instances of cooperation with minority, Golob pointed to model farms across the border in Hungary and Croatia and the European capital project that brings together the border towns of Gorizia in Italy and Nova Gorica in Slovenia.

As regards the minority in Austria, the meeting highlighted several topics, said Golob, the most urgent being language preservation and use. Among other things, the meeting discussed ways to protect Slovenian language use for the minority but also economic cooperation.

Arčon said Slovenia faced a number of challenges in bilateral ties with Austria, especially as regards the implementation of the Austrian State Treaty, which ensures the use of Slovenian language for the minority, as well as in terms of rail connections and use of Slovenian in education, above all in nursery schools.

Arčon said that the talks about the minority in Italy revolved around ways to provide more funds, a topic that will be discussed by Golob with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni before the end of the month, according to the minister.

He added that the meeting also discussed minority representation at state and local levels.