The last meeting of the Joint Commission of Government and National and Ethnic Minorities

For 21 December 2016, the last in this year, LVIII meeting of the Joint Commission of Government and National and Ethnic Minorities is planned. It will start at 9 AM in the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw.

As we can read in the agenda of works for 2016 that has been posted on the Ministry’s website, the following issues are to be raised at the meeting:

• Activity of the national entities (the Internal Security Agency) within security of Polish radical groups, as well as environments of national and ethnic minorities from infiltration by foreign services),
• Information from the Ministry of Interior and Administration on donations granted for 2017 for tasks that aim to protect, support and develop the cultural identity of national and ethnic minorities, as well as maintain and develop regional language.
• Information on detailed principles of procedures for granting donations for 2018, aiming for protection, suport and development of cultural identity of national and ethnic minorities, as well as maintenance and development of regional language.
• Agenda of works of the Joint Commission for 2017.

Apart from this, a day earlier, 20 December 2016, at 6 PM a minority part of the Commission will meet, composed of representatives of some minorities. There, the representatives will among others meet some experts who participate in the works of the grant commission, they will discuss draft resolutions for changes of some laws (decommunization law, reform of the education system, law on the Institute of National Memory) and they will express their opinions and attitudes towards the issues that will be presented at the LVIII meeting of the Joint Commission of Government and National and Ethnic Minorities. Will the issue of permanent damaging of Polish-Lemko boards with names of villages in Lemkovyna (in Gładyszów and then Regetów) be raised as promised at the meeting in Legnica by the representatives of Lemko minority prof. Stefan Dudra and PhD Mirosława Kopystiańska? We do not know it yet, but there was no such a point in the agenda of the meeting.