At the very beginning of the meeting the guests presented the Draft Strategy on the Diaspora, result of the research conducted for the purpose of identifying the key challenges, needs and priorities of Serbs living in the diaspora. Nemanja Dimitrijevic pointed out that around 200 respondents living in 10 different countries, of different ages, participated in the development of the Strategy, and the common denominator of their observations was the need for additional protection of the Serbian language, especially the Cyrillic script, as well as culture and tradition.

He underlined the complexity of the situation in the field of education in the diaspora, referring to France, from which he himself comes, and from where in September last year the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia withdrew a large number of Serbian language teachers from supplementary schools.

Dimitrijevic stressed that young people in the diaspora are faced with the challenges of insufficient language preservation and assimilation processes, due to very limited opportunities for meetings and networking at the national level, as well as the almost complete absence of cultural organisations and content that would contribute to this.

He reminded that around six million Serbs live in the diaspora today, representing one of the most significant economic pillars of the Republic of Serbia, as they bring around five billion euros into their home country every year, making them among the largest investors in Serbia.

The Chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region expressed his satisfaction that, as he pointed out, there are young people in the diaspora who want to fight for the protection of Serbian culture, tradition and interests, and that he will, both personally and as Chairman of the Committee, do everything within his power to contribute to that fight.

He emphasised the importance of developing a Draft Strategy on the Diaspora and proposed that a Committee session be held in the coming period, at which representatives of the Federation of Young Serbs of Europe would present the text to the Committee members. On that occasion, next steps would be planned, in cooperation with the Committee members, so that the document could be given an official form and its implementation could begin as soon as possible.