The sitting was attended by Dr Ljiljana Niksic, Head of the Migration Policy, Diaspora and Social Security Agreements Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dragan Stanojevic, President of the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Zvonimir Jovanovic, Vice-President of the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Vidoje Puric, delegate of the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region from France, and Jelena Kis, President of the Centre of Emigrants of Serbia.

Dragan Stanojevic, President of the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, briefed the Committee on the current situation at the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region whose work has basically been blocked due to the expiration of its mandate.

He said that the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region would not ask for anything from the state if its scope were wider.

“We have submitted various suggestions how to amend the Law and Rulebook to the former Ministry for the Diaspora, but so far it has yielded no results. Since the Assembly’s mandate expired, we now have a so-called technical mandate within which we can only do so much, so we cooperate with your Committee and other state institutions. We all know that the diaspora would like to help the mother country and we are always here, but we need a framework to organise our actions and be useful to the state and the state to us. A working body should be set up, comprising Assembly members and representatives of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to tackle issues affecting the diaspora and whose proposals would be submitted for consideration and adoption”, said Stanojevic.

He also informed the Committee members that the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region had adopted a Declaration on keeping the memory of Serb victims via which it would project the proper image of the suffering of the Serbian people.

The Committee members agreed that a better exchange of data and information calls for better coordination between the state bodies and the representatives of the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, and that it is imperative to appoint the director and deputy director of the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region.

Following the debate on the first item on the agenda, the Committee accepted a Conclusion noting that the Law should be amended in order to overcome the operative problems of the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region and resolve other problems of Serbs living abroad, and that the Committee members have been notified of the working version of the Declaration on keeping the memory of Serb victims, submitted by the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region on St. Vitus Day (Vidovdan).

The Committee members endorsed the initiative of the Assembly of the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region to meet with the Foreign Minister and find a solution for the outstanding issues, among them the amendments and modification of the Law on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region.

The Committee members also agreed that it would be good to organise a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss future cooperation.

The Committee members went on to discuss the Information on the election of the director of the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region and the Information on the databases and records on the diaspora and Serbs in the region. They launched the initiative to set up a commercial database comprising information on all the Serbs in the diaspora so as to expedite recordkeeping on Serbs in the diaspora, and the initiative to set up a working group at the relevant Ministry and put in in charge of the matter.

The sitting was chaired by Dr Janko Veselinovic, Committee Chairman.