On 6-8 December, an International Scientific Conference on “Challenges of monitoring in the European multicultural environment” was organised in Belgrade on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the FCNM by the Institute of Social Sciences of the Republic of Serbia. Several experts of the Advisory Committee, current and former presidents and the Executive Secretary participated in the conference. On 13-14 December, the University of Glasgow’s College of Social Sciences and Centre for Public Policy hosted a public event aimed at raising awareness of the Council of Europe’s conventions protecting the rights of minorities and minority languages, organised alongside the University of Edinburg. Representatives of the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and Committee of Experts on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) presented the respective conventions and the latest recommendations from the previous monitoring cycle concerning the United Kingdom, with a focus on Scotland.

Over the second half of the year, the Advisory Committee has conducted six monitoring visits, starting with a coordinated visit to Denmark together with the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. On 18-22 September, a delegation of the ACFC visited Ireland to evaluate progress made in the protection of national minorities in the 5th monitoring cycle, followed by monitoring visits to Azerbaijan in October and Montenegro, Bulgaria and Lithuania in November 2023. Moreover, seven new Advisory Committee Opinions have been published over the past semester: the 5th cycle Opinions on Switzerland, Romania, Austria, the Republic of Moldova and Albania, the 4th cycle Opinion on the Netherlands and the 6th cycle Opinion on Liechtenstein.

The outline for state reports to be submitted under the sixth monitoring cycle of the FCNM was approved by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on 6 July 2022 at the 1439th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies. The new monitoring cycle started with the reception of the state reports from Liechtenstein, Finland and Denmark in March 2023. Since then, a total of six sixth cycle state reports have been submitted. The first sixth cycle Advisory Committee Opinion to be adopted and published was Liechtenstein in November 2023. More sixth cycle state reports are expected in the beginning of 2024.

The FCNM leaflet provides basic 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 it has gradually been translated into more and more languages and is now also available in Azeri, Bulgarian and Lithuanian. More language versions are to come in 2024.