The Minister of Public Administration and Local self-government Ana Brnabic held a work meeting with presidents of National Councils of National Minorities which was attended also by The Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic and acting director of the Office for Human and Minority Rights Suzana Paunovic. The goal of the meeting was to introduce The Minister with the representatives of The National Councils, having in mind the important role of these bodies for preserving national identities of minorities and advancing their position.

“One of the most significant activities that was executed in the area of protection of National Minorities was the adoption of the Action plan for realizing the rights of minorities whose adoption was envisaged in the process of European integration of Serbia, within the framework of the Chapter 23”, pointed out The Minister and stressed the importance of participation of National Councils in the following phases of the implementation of activities from the Action plan.

It was underlined during the meeting that there are plans for modification of the Law for Protection of Rights and Liberties of the Minorities, which will refer to allowing the possibility of entering the information about the nationality of minority members on their ID’s and their proportional representation in the Public sector. The Ministry will continue to work on modifying The Law on National Councils of National minorities that will be directed to clear defining of the jurisdiction of councils and the decrease of their excessive  politicization. Special attention will be dedicated to the financial aspects of this regulation on all three levels of government: state, regional and local.

The Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic thanked The Minister for the invitation for this meeting and for the opportunity to further advance their cooperation. She stressed that Serbia went a long way in the area of protection of minorities and praised the readiness of The Ministry to resolve the issues in this area.

“The members of national minorities are facing some forms of discrimination and that is especially true when it comes to the members of the Roma population”, pointed out Jankovic and at the same time highlighted the good cooperation with NCNM.

The Director of the Office for Human and Minority Rights – Suzana Paunovic , spoke about the activities for implementation of the Action plan for realizing the rights of minorities and stated that the Action plan is functioning in practice. The Director said that the report on this subject will be presented by the end of October, and she also highlighted the great dedication of the Serbian government to the process of integration with emphasized cooperation with NCNM as well as the member states of the EU.