He was told that the situation in general was improving, but there is fear this could be undermined by ongoing reforms in Italy.

The first issue highlighted by the representatives, including the deputy president of the regional Friuli-Venezia Giulia parliament Igor Gabrovec, are changes to the election system they say run against long-standing efforts to secure adequate representation for the Slovenian minority in the Italian Parliament.

Another problem is the reform of local administration in Friuli-Venezia Giulia where, in the words of Gabrovec "even small bilingual municipalities are being forced into much bigger units in which...all the efforts will be shattered of elected Slovenians who are trying to preserve and strengthen the Slovenian community".

Gabrovec already wrote about the situation to Mattarella in March and presented the content of the letter to Pahor today, the minority's web portal slomedia.it reported.

The president announced he would ask the Italian counterpart during his official visit to Slovenia next Wednesday to show understanding and help solve issues that have an important impact on the minority.