(ANSA) - ROME, 24 APR - Two meetings were held today, in Santa Lucia di Pirano and in Rijeka, between former minister Carlo Giovanardi and the Italian Union of Slovenia and Croatia, chaired by Maurizio Tremul. In St. Lucia, reads a note, the Consul General of Italy in Slovenia Giovanni Coviello and the president of the Coastal Self-Governing Community of the Italian Nationality in Koper,Alberto Scheriani, were present; in Rijeka Furio Radin, deputy of the Italian National Community and vice-president of the Croatian Parliament, Jessica Acquavita, vice-president of the Istrian Region, Enea Dessardo, president of the Community of Italians in Rijeka, and Consul General of Italy in Rijeka Iva Palmieri. Radin argued that each National Minority Community must have the rights that belong to it historically and by its own evolution, representing the autochthony of the three minorities in the political and social contexts of the three states.Giovanardi said that the indigenous Italian minority in Slovenia and Croatia and the Slovenian and Croatian minorities in Italy, all of which are currently full members of the European Union, must have equal treatment with regard to toponymy, schools in their mother tongue, respect for their culture, and official public use of the minority language on bilingual territories. The former Pdl minister recalled that Istria has become a model of coexistence between the remaining indigenous Italian Community and the Croatian majority, while unfortunately in Rijeka and Zadar the rights of the remaining Italian Minority are still struggling to assert themselves. Finally, he emphasized that Croatia, Italy and Slovenia can be points of reference all over the world for their model of peaceful coexistence that can be an example everywhere to avoid the risk of new conflicts based on anachronistic nationalistic claims as in Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Tremul confirmed the intention of the Italian Union of Slovenia and Croatia to take an active part so that this model of coexistence can be fully implemented and be an example to be imitated wherever there are conflicts. (ANSA).