The Advisory Committee held its 80th meeting from 5 to 9 June in Strasbourg. It adopted three 5th cycle Opinions, on Albania, Austria and the Republic of Moldova, which will become public in October 2023. It also approved three draft Opinions: the 4th cycle Opinion on Latvia, the 5th cycle Opinion on Sweden and the 6th cycle Opinion on Liechtenstein. These Opinions will now undergo a confidential dialogue phase with the states parties concerned before being examined again and adopted at a forthcoming plenary session. Also on the agenda of this plenary: an exchange of views with the OSCE HCNM, which highlighted the excellent co-operation and effective complementarity of the two institutions in the field of national minority protection.

*All references to Kosovo, whether the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations' Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.

Over the past months, the Advisory Committee has conducted four monitoring visits, starting with the 4th cycle visit to Latvia from 27 February to 3 March. On 6-10 March, a delegation of the ACFC visited Sweden to evaluate progress made in the protection of national minorities in the 5th monitoring cycle, followed by monitoring visits to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia in April and May respectively. Moreover, four new Advisory Committee Opinions have been published over the last semester: the 5th cycle Opinions on Armenia and on Italy both on 13 February, on the United Kingdom on 25 May and on Kosovo* on 26 May.

Follow-up meetings are a regular practice by the Advisory Committee as they provide a unique opportunity to exchange with all relevant stakeholders on the implementation of the Advisory Committee’s recommendations and share good practices. One follow-up meeting was recently organised with the authorities and representatives of national minorities in North Macedonia on 22 May. Another will follow on 28 June in Bratislava, which will be an opportunity for the Advisory Committee to welcome the official recognition of the Vietnamese as the 14th national minority in the Slovak Republic.

The FCNM leaflet presents all the basic facts and figures about the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in a nutshell. It provides information on the Advisory Committee’s role and work, explains the monitoring process and illustrates the standards of the Framework Convention. Since its first publication in December 2020 it has gradually been translated into more and more languages and is now available in 17 languages. More are to come…