BBC Monitoring European - Political; London; Jun 10, 2003

Text of report in English by Czech news agency CTK

Presov, eastern Slovakia, 9 June: Delegates from all member countries of the Ruthenian World Congress welcomed EU enlargement at their conference in Presov which ended on Sunday [8 June].

In a joint statement they said that EU enlargement would enable closer international cooperation and lead to further development of the Ruthenian ethnic minority. At the same time they expressed the need to look for ways of preventing the isolation of Ruthenians from Ukraine who will find themselves behind the Schengen border after Slovakia, Hungary and Poland enter the European Union in 2004.

"We consider it important to exert efforts to facilitate as much as possible cooperation with Ukraine where the largest Ruthenian community lives. This mainly concerns the areas of education and culture," Slovak representative in the Ruthenian World Council Anna Kuzmiakova told CTK today. She said that the participants in the conference approved an application of Ruthenians from Romania to the World Ruthenian Congress by which its number reached eight.

Film scriptwriter and university teacher from the Polish town of Wroclaw, Andrej Kopca, was elected as the new chairman of the Ruthenian World Congress.

Kuzmiakova said that it was for the first time in the 12-year long period of the existence of the Ruthenian World Congress that a Ruthenian from other country than Slovakia was elected its head.

The 7th conference of the World Ruthenian Congress, which opened on 5 June, was attended by delegates from 11 countries who debated EU enlargement, the position of Ruthenians in individual countries and the codification of the Ruthenian language. The conference was accompanied by a number of cultural events over the weekend and culminated with the first ever World Forum of Ruthenian Youth on Sunday.

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