Prime Minister Janez Janša today convened a regular session of the Council for Slovenes Abroad, established one year ago, which involves all members of the Council of Slovene Emigrant Communities from Argentina, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, France, China, Germany, Serbia and the USA.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
Prime Minister Janša began by presenting major achievements of Slovenia's Presidency of the Council of the European Union and by thanking the Slovene emigrants who had helped in any way with the organisation of cultural and other events aimed at promoting Slovenia. The PM was then congratulated by representatives of Slovene emigrants for Slovenia's successful leadership of the EU Council, thanking the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for the special attention it had given to the emigrant community. They also expressed their gratitude for several activities the Government has initiated for Slovene emigrants, in particular the recent adoption of the "Strategy on relations of the Republic of Slovenia with Slovenes living outside its borders".
The emigrant Council members then discussed the current activities of Slovene communities living abroad, stressing the need to strengthen the integration of young Slovene emigrants into social life. They proposed viable solutions for reinforcing cooperation with their homeland and pointed out the administrative burdens associated with certain procedures in Slovenia, the need to facilitate voting in elections as well as their desire to have more immediate access to current affairs in Slovenia. In addition, they would like Slovenia to be better acquainted with the life of emigrant communities and also hope to get more media attention.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
The Prime Minister thanked the emigrant communities for their views on strengthening mutual cooperation and presented the work that the Government had done in the last year within the framework of the Council programme, aimed at both deepening the ties between Slovenia and its emigrants as well as those within the emigrant community itself. He mentioned, for example, the opening of the Centre for Slovenian Studies and the Slovenian Museum and Archives in Cleveland, better access to scholarships intended for young Slovenes living abroad regardless of their citizenship, financial aid for Slovene business clubs around the world and, finally, a plan to set up a special web portal for Slovene emigrants offering a wide range of information, news and useful links, which would be upgraded according to the needs of Slovene emigrant communities.
