National Assembly Deputy Speaker Djordje Milicevic, Prime Minister’s advisor on regional cooperation and relations with religious communities MA Vladimir Bozovic, acting assistant minister of foreign affairs in charge of consular affairs Ambassador Aca Jovanovic and representative of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vukman Krivokuca participated in the introductory part of the sitting.

Committee Chairman MA Ivan Kostic thanked the attending stressing that that this is the first Committee sitting in this format in the last four years and hoping that in future the Committee would have meetings of this kind once a year. The Chairman said that the issue of Serbs in the diaspora should become a national issue and, in line with it, the Committee should work on improving the position of the Serbian diaspora. Kostic added that parliamentarians play an important role in passing important documents such as the Declaration on the Rights of Serbs in the Region, Declaration on the Genocide in Jasenovac, and in the creation of the national budget wherein more funds should be allocated for the Serbian diaspora.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Djordje Milicevic stressed that the National Assembly is open for dialogue and cooperation with all Serbs living in the diaspora and will, within its scope, along with the relevant national institutions, work on improving the position of all Serbs and preserving their national identity both in the region and abroad. He said that the relationship between Serbs in the diaspora and the home country should be strong, constant and unbreakable, adding that only continued dialogue can help resolve issues of mutual importance. Milicevic concluded that the national minorities in Serbia enjoy a high degree of rights and in line with it stressed that the state would keep insisting that the Serbian diaspora, especially in the states in the region, be allowed to exercise its guaranteed minority rights and freedoms.

Speaking of the status of Serbs in the region, Vladimir Bozovic said that the position of the Serbian diaspora, mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, is bad considering the fact that the number of returnees after the war is low, that the Serb population cannot exercise the most basic rights such as education in the mother tongue, the right to pension, housing, etc. On the other hand, Bozovic mentioned Hungary as a good example where about 10,000 Serbs enjoy a high degree of rights and freedoms and an excellent status. Some of the Government’s priorities in the coming period he said would be opening the so-called Serbian House in Podgorica, working on securing the 65,000 Serbs living in Slovenia the status of national minority, and encouraging dialogue between the Serbian Orthodox and Romanian Orthodox Church on religious matters.

Ambassador Aca Jovanovic said that peace and stability are one of the Government’s most important foreign policy priorities and that intensive economic cooperation through infrastructural projects could best lead to regional reconciliation, while Vukman Krivokuca said that priority issues such as constitutional and legal definition of the status of the Serbian people, strengthening cooperation between churches and the freedom of religion, participation and employment in state bodies, preservation of language and script are matters that require the co-operation of all the state bodies of the Republic of Serbia.

Miodrag Linta, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, informed the attending that about two million Serbs live on the territory of the countries in the region and that it is very important to exchange opinions and come to a common solution how to improve the position of the Serbian diaspora at the sitting. Linta said that in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia there is a systemic discrimination against the Serbian people, double standards in war crime trials and ethnically motivated judiciary, and that the Ustasha movement and ideology is being increasingly rehabilitated which is a serious problem, stressing that only a common insistence on equal standards and reciprocity and consistent implementation of the Dayton Accords in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina can lead to a lasting peace and stability in the region.

Mladen Bosic, Second Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Stasa Kosarac, SNSD Caucus – Milorad Dodik at the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andrija Mandic on the behalf of the New Serb Democracy in Montenegro and member of the Montenegrin Parliament, Ivan Stoilkovic, member of the Macedonian Parliament and Head of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia, Slavoljub Adnadj, member of the Romanian Parliament and member of the Union of Serbs in Romania, Nine Horvat, member of the Independent Democratic Serb Party in the Croatian Parliament and envoy of the President of the Serb National Council, Ljubomir Aleksov, member of the Hungarian Parliament and representative of the Serbian self-government in Hungary, as well as representatives of the Serbian national councils in Slovenia, Macedonia and Romania, and Serbian associations in Albania, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, took part in the discussion.

The Committee Chairman proposed that the conclusions of the Seventh Sitting of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region be adopted at the next sitting and sent to the relevant state institutions to employ adequate measures.

Finally, the Committee Chairman thanked the Serbian students from the region, the Society of Serbian Hosts and UNDP who supported the sitting, for their attendance.