Firm foundation for minority language newspapers

The third conference of Minority Language Daily Press in Europe came to a close in Palma yesterday and one of the closing acts was to introduce the statutes for the new European Association of Minority Language Press which involves 24 of Europe's 25 minority language newspapers. The creation of the Association and its statutes, which were approved at the Parc Bit conference yesterday morning, gives Europe's minority language press a firm foundation from which they can expand and prepare for a brighter future. The president of the ten-strong board of newspaper editors, is Toni Ebnder, the editor of the daily newspaper Dolomiten, a German-language paper published in Northern Italy. Hojan Brezigar, the director of the European Minority Language Office, said that the birth of the Association has given all the members great hope for the future. One of the members of the board is Miguel Serra, the editor of the Balearics' only Catalan language daily Diari de Balears which is published by the same group as the Daily Bulletin. Along side Serra on the board are the editors of the Basque language daily Egunkaria and Josep Camprubi, the editor of Rigio7. Thirteen of the participating newspapers were represented in Palma over the past few days, all signed up to the association, as have another 11 who have been unable to attend the conference.