EUPEN/BRUSSELS (own report) A German expert on "ethnic groups", who previously worked not only for German "Expellee" organisations but also for the controversial Federal Institute for Eastern Research and International Studies , is the permanent representative in Brussels for the eastern Belgian German-speaking community. This was announced on Belgian radio.

Joerg Horn, one of the "ethnic group" experts originating from the German town of Koblenz, has now worked for several months as the permanent representative in Brussels of the East Belgian German-speaking community. There he publicly supports the struggle for autonomy of the German-speaking community, whose government is campaigning to secede from the Belgian Region of Wallonia . Horn himself represents an even more radical position; he wishes to separate even more Communes from the Region of Wallonia where German is spoken and to form them into a "German-Belgian" Region.

The works of this "ethnic group" expert , Horn, have been used in the official foreign policy of the German government. In particular, he demanded new special collective rights for German-speaking Polish citizens. In 1997 his paper "On the way to "Europe-Town"? German-Polish co-operation in the towns divided by the Oder and Neisse rivers "(*1) appeared in a series of the Federal Institute for Eastern Research & International Studies . In the meantime this has been taken up by the Economy & Policy Institute, one of the most influential Berlin think tanks.

Last year Horn published the quintessence of this paper alongside a series of further articles on the "ethnic group" policy programme in the "East Prussia Journal" (Ostpreussenblat), the paper of the "Association of East Prussians" (*2). He suggested that Polish towns such as Zgorzelec or Gubin should be bound step by step , ever more closely, to neighbouring German towns such as Goerlitz or Guben. This would lead to the point "that the Oder-Neisse frontier(*3) (...) will be dissolved like a sugar lump in tea". The towns of Goerlitz and Zgorzelec are presently experimenting with such a programme.

Horn is openly implicated in the circumvention of the usual formalities in his appointment. The Social Democrat Minister-President of the German-speaking community, Lambertz, declared this before the Regional Assembly of the German-speaking Community. The nomination of the Conservative, Horn, was of "unusual interest" because he had decided on Horn's appointment without advertising the position.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

(*1 & *3) The Oder Neisse line is the frontier between Germany and Poland, agreed in the 1945 peace settlement and subsequently ratified by the then West German Government

(*2) Most of former East Prussia is presently part part of the territory of Poland and of Russia

SOURCE

Belgian Radio Regional Announcement of 20 September 2002 - "Permanent Representative for enlarged Fourth Region".