EFA – Rainbow’s participated in the 25th Anniversary of European Free Alliance

EFA – Rainbow participated in the 25th Anniversary of European Free Alliance – European Political Party

A delegation of the European Free Alliance – Rainbow (Rainbow) visited Brussels from 10-13 May 2006 to participate in the General Assembly of the European Free Alliance – European Political Party (EFA-EPP) in which Rainbow has been a full member since 2000.

EFA (European Free Alliance) as a coalition of parties which fights for the rights of stateless nations, minorities and peoples of the regions of Europe celebrated its 25 th anniversary on 11 May 2006 in the central chamber of the European Parliament in the presence of other political groups, MEPs and representatives of EU institutions.

Rainbow was given an opportunity to address the gathering during which activists of the party displayed two large banners which read:

The above slogans referred to the discriminatory policies of the Greece against its Macedonian minority as well as to the policy of double standards of the EU in relation to membership criteria for new member states and the actual situation in "old" member states.

The audience of 500 guests were impressed by Rainbow's innovative protest as it is not very often that such demonstrations are held in the central chamber of the European Parliament. Following the conclusion of the anniversary celebration, many of the 500 participants approached the delegation of Rainbow to seek further information on the situation of the Macedonian minority and other minorities in Greece.

In the official agenda of the meeting, new membership applications were discussed. After many months of lobbying on the part of Rainbow, OMO PIRIN, a political party of the Macedonian minority of Bulgaria was unanimously awarded observer status in the EFA-EPP.

A major discussion point of the meeting was the current climate of scepticism for further European integration, the future enlargement of the EU and the perspective of EFA-EPP in the political arena of the EU.

It should be noted that at the insistence of Rainbow and with the support of EFA-EPP the Macedonian language was included in the work of the meeting together with the other working languages. The speeches of Rainbow at the session were made in Macedonian and were simultaneously translated into the other working languages. This will now become common practice at future EFA-EPP gatherings in the European Parliament.