The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the competent Committee will fully support the efforts of the Serbian community in the Republic of Slovenia to gain the status of a national minority recognised by the Constitution and law, said Aleksandar Cotric in the meeting with Nikola Todorovic.

Gaining the status of national minority, granted only to the Italian and Hungarian minorities, is a prerequisite for the Serbian people to have a representative at the Slovenian Parliament, be allowed the option to attend school and be informed in their mother tongue and secure regular funding for cultural and artistic activities, stressed Aleksandar Cotric.

Nikola Todorovic said that, when visiting Slovenia, Serbia’s official representatives should meet not only with Slovenia’s top dignitaries, but with members of the Serbian community as well, so as to learn about their needs and expectations, because despite being the second most numerous people in the state, after the Slovenes, Serbs are denied certain elementary rights necessary for the preservation of national identity.

Cotric and Todorovic agreed that the provisions of the Law on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region and the Law on Citizenship need to be amended so as to enable better representation of Serbs living abroad and facilitate their access to Serbian citizenship.

Nikola Todorovic invited the members of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region to visit the Serbian community in Slovenia, and Cotric announced that the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region would dedicate one of its upcoming sittings to the status of Serbs in Slovenia.

Aleksandar Cotric pointed out that the status of Slovenes in Serbia has been satisfactorily resolved – that they have been granted the status of national minority, that they have created a National Council financed by the Serbian budget, and that the state of Slovenia should meet the Serbs’ justified requests.