Below is an article published by Agence Bretagne Press 

On 1 July 2015 in Brussels, in the office of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) Jean-Loup Le Cuff, President of KAD, Kelc’h An Dael, for the (re)creation of a Parliament of Brittany, and Stéphane Domagala, president of KAD’s international commission, attended the UNPO General Assembly, during which they defended Brittany’s application. The Breton delegation presented its country, its history and its culture, and then participated in a Q&A session. The Assembly accepted, following a unanimous vote, to accept Brittany as a member. Thus Brittany joins the 43 other Unrepresented Nations and Peoples from across the world who form part of the organisation.

 On 2 July, we sat in the European Parliament, along with numerous other members of UNPO and international academic and political figures, to participate in enriching debates under the title "Auctioning Human Rights? Democracy and the Right to Decide".

 On 3 July, UNPO representatives and the Breton delegation officially signed Brittany’s membership to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, leading the way to the internationalization of the Breton cause. This is the speech that was read in response to this admission:

 "Hello to you all, members of the UNPO and representatives of Stateless Nations and Peoples!

It is a great honor for us today to be with you, to tell you about our people of Brittany, our Breton Nation!

Since ancient times, the Breton people have been mentioned by the early Greeks authors as the Celtic people of the Island of Britain, now called Great Britain. After the Roman invasion of part of the Island of Britain, then the fall of the Roman Empire, many Bretons, under the pressure of Germanic and Nordic peoples, migrated to Brittany after the end of the 4th century AD, to found what is now Brittany. The language of this new country was the insular Breton language which, step by step, became the modern Breton still spoken today, and the last continental Celtic language (alongside the Gallo, another popular Breton language from Gallo-Roman origin).

The Breton people, despite the many French military attempts to annex them from the 6th century, were successful in their resistance and became a stable and independent country until the French invasion of 1488, and the French annexation of the area in 1532, which was, according to international law, imposed and illegal. Our country, Brittany, which is proud of the many brilliant and independent kings it has had, was once the fourth power in Europe and had one of the first merchant fleets. Breton culture still continues to shine today, albeit with increasing difficulty as a result of the undermining attacks of the French state.

Indeed, the French administration, which ruled from Paris at its own pleasure, did not spare Brittany: our men were on the front line in all French military conflicts; our language was prohibited in the schools of the republic which led to its decreasing and marginal use; the fifth and richest department of our territory was entrenched in 1972, despite having been stable in its geographical integrity for 1200 years; our history was negated in school teaching and in museums; our finances and our taxes were managed by and for interests which are not ours ... Over time things got worse, and we lost hope! None of our basic rights as Breton people are recognized by France, which denies our existence.

For all these reasons, you will easily understand our happiness to be sitting by your side, hoping to find the beginning of our recognition, a democratic and international brotherhood, far from the centralist and devious state which stifles us.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for welcoming us! I shall tell you in our own language in order to help it to resonate here: E anv pobl Vreizh, a-greiz hor c'halon e trugarekaomp ac'hanoc'h evit ho tegemer!

Trugarez! Thank you !"

On 4 July, all of the UNPO members were invited to sit at the Flemish Parliament in order to debate and vote for UNPO’s new resolutions, as well as to elect its new Presidency. These three days have been very intense and full of emotion and encounters. We had the pleasure to meet our friends of the Savosian State again. Savoy was the first Nation in the Hexagon to have joined UNPO. 

Photo courtesy of serguei_30 @ Flickr