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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Government continuously improves position of national minorities

Belgrade, 28 March 2019

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said today that the government is working on the continuous improvement of the position of national minorities living in our country, pointing out that the work of the Council for National Minorities is a confirmation of the commitment to this topic.

Brnabic, who chaired the session of Council for National Minorities for the fourth time, stressed that numerous activities of the government and other institutions, media and civil society organisations have contributed to raising the awareness of citizens about the presence of national minorities in our country and their rights, as well as better implementation of anti-discrimination legislation.

The Prime Minister stated that during the period between the two sessions of the Council, amendments were made to the regulations dealing with the rights of national minorities, primarily the Law on the protection of rights and freedoms of national minorities, the Law on national minority councils, the Law on the official use of languages and letters, the Law on the registries of births, deaths and marriages and the Law on local self-government.

She recalled that at the 4 November elections of last year, 22 national minorities elected members of national councils. After successfully conducted elections, all national councils were constituted, and in addition to the existing national councils, two new national councils of the Polish and Russian national minorities were formed.

Brnabic informed representatives of the National Councils of National Minorities about the significance of the implementation of the Address Register project, jointly implemented by the Republic Geodetic Authority, the Post of Serbia, the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities and the local self-government.

Updating the address register is another important step towards the introduction of the state order and modernisation of the state administration, the Prime Minister pointed out, explaining that in this way the citizens and the economy will be enabled to have efficient and easily accessible services provided by the state.

Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government Branko Ruzic pointed out that the proposal of the Coordination of National Councils is that culture be a priority area in 2019, in which programmes and projects are financed from the Budget Fund for National Minorities. The Council for National Minorities unanimously adopted this proposal.

Ruzic, who is Deputy President of the Council for National Minorities, said that RSD 30 million dinars have been allocated for financing these programmes and projects.

In cooperation with the Office of the Council of Europe in Belgrade, the Office for Human and Minority Rights organised a presentation of the Analysis Report on the implementation of the Action Plan for the realisation of the rights of national minorities, which contains recommendations for future improvements in line with the Council of Europe and European Union standards. The analysis was made by experts hired by the Council of Europe.