According to the daily, minority organisations and cultural institutions are to get EUR 4.5m (down from last year's EUR 5.3m), while the fund for local administrations where Slovenians live is kept dry.

Minority organisations, which have been facing dire financial straits, as they have not yet received any minority protection funding this year, said they were glad that some funds were finally allocated, but warned that the severe 21.77% cut in funding for Slovenian organisations and institutions would "irreparably damage the Slovenian institutions".

Responding to the news on Monday, the Slovenian Cultural and Business Association (SKGZ) noted that taking into account also the announced cut in funding for Primorski dnevnik, this was leading to an "unprecedented severity of the financial state of our community".

They expect all the available mechanisms will be launched in Rome, in the region and in bilateral relations between Slovenia and Italy to secure at least the same level of funding as so far, but the association also hopes for a systemic solution.

The Council of Slovenian Organisations (SSO) also protested against the cut, but expressed more optimism that joint efforts will win the minority the remaining funds initially envisaged, as has been achieved in previous years.

The SKGZ also stressed that the minority only received EUR 930,000 for 2007 in 2009 from the special fund for the minority envisaged in the regional protection law, while it got nothing in 2010 and 2011, and only EUR 100,000 this year.

From Slovenia, minority organisations in Italy have received 80% of the envisaged funds for this year, according to SKGZ, and at the end of the year the total figure is expected to be 8-10% lower than last year.