Committee Chairman Aleksandar Cotric said that Serbia and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have good bilateral relations, but the position of the Serbian population living in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to be improved. He added that Serbs make up about 2% of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina and shared some of the problems they struggle with. He stressed that the Serbian population is not returning to the Federation, that Serbs make up less than 1% of employees in state institutions and have no representative in the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Director of the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Slavka Draskovic spoke of the popular census of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stressing that an initiative should be launched to ask questions of importance for the diaspora at each meeting between Serbian and foreign high dignitaries.

In the course of the sitting, the participants also discussed other problems troubling Serbs living in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina such as return of property, personal safety, discrimination by state bodies, unemployment, electrification of villages populated by Serbs and the need to boost the representation of Serbs in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In addition to the Committee members, the sitting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Ministry of Justice and Public Administration of the Republic of Serbia, Government’s Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Council on Serbs in the Region, War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, representatives of the Serbian people in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regional and local self-governments and associations of Serbian refugees and exiles from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the following conclusions:

The sitting was chaired by Aleksandar Cotric, Committee Chairman.