The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has published today a new opinion on Slovenia, examining the progress made since 2011 and providing recommendations to the authorities (see also the Slovenian version, part 1 and part 2 of the opinion).
Slovenia applies the Framework Convention to persons belonging to the Italian and Hungarian national minorities in ethnically mixed areas, as well as to the Roma. Representatives of other groups in Slovenia, such as the German-speaking ethnic community (including the Kosjeve Germans, “the Gotsheer”), and the so-called “new national communities” (Albanians, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Croats, Macedonians and Serbs) benefit, as individuals, from constitutionally protected rights and some support in culture, media and language education, but are not officially covered by the Framework Convention. The Council of Europe experts call on the authorities and representatives of these communities to overcome the “stalemate” over their status using the article-by-article approach which allows choosing which rights should be accorded to whom.
