Minister Arčon meets Friuli Venezia Giulia president

Addressing the press after the talks, Fedriga said that they had discussed a number of topics, but the main ones were the way to ensure a guaranteed representation of the Slovenian minority in the Regional Council and the cooperation on the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) that the Slovenian city of Nova Gorica and Italy's Gorizia will host next year.

"As I have said many times before, I believe that it is necessary to guarantee the presence of a minority representative who will have complete autonomy in performing their tasks, without being tied to one political group or another," Fedriga said.

Fedriga sees the ECOC in Nova Gorica and Gorizia as the first true European Capital of Culture because, he said, it represents European values of unity and cross-border cooperation. He hopes that Slovenia, like Italy, will use the World Expo in Osaka next year to promote the two border cities.

Arčon noted the friendly spirit of their meeting. "I am glad that we both realise the importance of mutual cooperation and are building a common future on joint projects such as the ECOC," he said. They also agreed how to further strengthen cooperation at operational level by next year.

He praised Fedriga as a "man of his word" over the guaranteed representation of the Slovenian minority in the Regional Council. "Activities are running in the right direction. We would like to see this implemented by the end of next year. This would be a great recognition for the minority and a proof of the good cooperation between the region and Slovenia."

Asked whether they had discussed the controversy after the Gorizia municipal council's decided not to strip fascist leader Benito Mussolini of the honorary title of freeman of Gorizia, he said they "obviously did not discuss municipal level topics", but "we talked about projects for the future and the projects that bind us together".

Asked by a journalist from the Trieste-based Slovenian newspaper Primorski Dnevnik whether they had discussed the renewed reduction of regional funding for the newspaper, Arčon replied that he had raised the issue and that Fedriga promised to examine whether a solution could be found.