The Committee on Relations with Serbs Living Outside Serbia held its seventh sitting on 10 March. The sitting was chaired by the Committee Deputy Chairman Aleksandar Cotric, and attended by the State Secretary and Assistant Minister of the Ministry for the Diaspora, Predrag Tojic and Vukman Krivokuca, as well as the president of the Serbian Emigrant Society, Radivoj Dabic and associates.

The Committee appointed members to the Sub-Committee for Status Issues of the Diaspora, Sub-Committee for Economic Issues of the Diaspora, Sub-Committee for Educational and Scientific cooperation of the motherland and the Diaspora and Sub-Committee for Cultural and Sporting cooperation of the motherland and the Diaspora.

The Committee members and representatives of the Ministry for the Diaspora and Serbian Emigrant Society went on to discuss the Emigrant Society’s request for possible financing from the 2009 Budget of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

The Committee proposed that the Ministry for the Diaspora explore the possibility of financing SES from the 2009 budgetary means so as to enable its uninterrupted operations and realization of projects. Also, before passing the 2009 budget rebalance, the Committee should propose that the Ministry of Finance and Ministry for the Diaspora provide the additional means necessary for SES’s unimpeded work. Furthermore, the Committee expressed full support for the SES’s continued endurance and realization of their programme activities. The Committee also pointed out that the archives of the Serbian Emigrant Society require the implementation of necessary protective measures, and that the Ministry for the Diaspora should inform the Committee members within two months of possible solutions for financing the Society.