Members of the Standing Delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, led by delegation head Milos Aligrudic, met today in the National Assembly House with the PACE rapporteur on the position of minorities in Vojvodina and East Serbia, Jürgen Hermann. Rapporteur Hermann is visiting Serbia from 26 to 28 September with the goal of acquainting himself with the position of national minorities in Serbia, which will serve as basis for the report to be discussed at the PACE session.

Voicing his impressions after the visit to Timocka krajina, Hermann stated that a great deal more is being done on the protection of national minority rights in Vojvodina than of the Vlah ethnic group in East Serbia. He believes that the state should help their affirmation, especially that of their written language, through the Vlah National Council,.

The head of the Serbian Delegation to PACE, Milos Aligrudic, pointed out that the state of Serbia is doing all in its power to provide the highest level of respect for individual human rights and allow every person the right to voice their ethnicity.

Deputies Ninoslav Dimitrijevic and Miletic Mihajlovic, members of the Vlah ethnic group, emphasised that this issue is being needlessly politicised and imposed in the past few years, adding that the Vlah ethnic group does not accept the status of Romanian national minority in Serbia. As they pointed out, Vlahs are totally integrated in the politic and economic life of the country in which they live and they share the destiny of the Serbian people and members of national minorities in Serbia. Vlahs have the same chances and are highly present in the political life of East and Southeast Serbia, for example in Negotin, Bor, Petrovac and other places. They are, above all, interested in maintaining their cultural tradition and customs, the Deputies stated.

The members of the Serbian Delegation stressed that the unequal development of certain parts of Serbia, especially its Eastern part, is the cause of the low level of employment and living standard of the inhabitants, but that everything is being done to speed up the economic development of the region.