The funds will be made available to minority organisations, public administration and for projects to boost the socioeconomic development of the Udine province. A large share of the funds will pertain to the financing of Slovenian organisations, Slovenian Cultural and Business Association (SKGZ) said.

Slovenian minority organisations welcomed at a meeting yesterday the signing of the decree, saying there was now a "very concrete possibility" that Slovenian minority organisation get the much-needed funds in the first half of the year.

This year's amount is also higher than the EUR 5.3m previously expected. But the SKGZ pointed out that Slovenian organisations also suffered the biggest blow last year when their funding was cut by as much as EUR 1.3m.