BELGRADE -- The residents of Vojvodina will see full implementation of the new statute of the province in the new year.
Source: B92
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As for Vojvodina's many ethnic minority communities, the statute's implementations will mean that their national councils will be able to decide on issues related to education, culture, use of language and media.
Their representatives say that the statute represents a positive cooperation between the majority and minorities, and add that it effectively established a legal form of protection for national communities.
Laslo Joža, of the ethnic Hungarian national council, says that the minorities' rights are now firmly legally guaranteed in Serbia.
"The rights of minorities are guaranteed by the Constitution, and now with the statute, and these are firm legal guarantees that the rights of communities will not diminish," said he.
He added that the right to establish cultural, educational and media institution amounts to "legally based possibilities for a balanced personal autonomy".
The ethnic Croat community says they until now had problems concerning official use of the Croatian language, and hope this will change, according to Hrvatska Riječ Director Ivan Karan.
He also stated that he hopes this will also apply to other issues guaranteed by law, such as displaying of Croatian flags.
The provincial Information Secretariat officials say that the statute gives them a monitoring role and add that the goal is to preserve printed and electronic media in the languages of minorities.
To the people who marked my previous comment as "negative":
if you are Serbs, then know that a real friend, as we Romanians consider ourselves as being towards you, will always speak openly; and you should be wise enough to accept advice and even criticism from your friends, because it has nothing malicious in it. Serbian people are going through hard times today, and need all the friends it can gather; especially those who are friends in their hearts, where the friendship lies, not only in their minds – a place for politics... Therefore don't be upset on my comment, because there is much more in it than meets the eye: if Romanians and Hungarians were able to re-conciliate (following the example of French and Germans) inasmuch that today there are 4 Magyar Ministers out of 15 in the Romanian Govt., there is nothing to prevent same reconciliation between Serbs and Hungarians, in Voivodina. Rest assured, those few hot-minded Magyars will not be able to do much damage, as they weren’t able to do much in Transilvania, as long as Serb radical politicians are kept under control, as Romanians did with our extremists. But these requires all the energy and wisdom of Serbians, politicians and common people alike, to make the agreements to work in real life and also to join EU on the fast track – because in EU the borders will be nothing more than symbols. And in EU you have friends already, as you had previously when in need - remember June 1913?
Costel Petrea, Timisoara
(Costel Petrea, Timisoara, 2 January 2010 14:54)
they say they want to display croatian flags they could display it in croatia and bosnia not in serbia and serbs are 75% of the province, so whats the point.
(tom, 2 January 2010 01:27)
Good news.
We, in Romania, are looking forward to see that situation of Romanians living in Voivodina will improve. There are churches waiting to be build, schools to be supported - nothing more than Serbs in Romania have already. Also, Romanians in Voivodina are (and will continue to be) loyal citizens of the Serbian state, no matter they call themselves Romanians or Vlachs; not to mentiona that improving their chances to conserve their ethnic identity will make a good gesture from Belgrade's part, given Bucharest position over Kosovo issue... So far, as Romanian media reported from time to time, many promises made by Belgrade to Bucharest remained just on paper, something which is somehow understandable, given the Kosovo debacle. But it would be unfair towards one or more minorities in Serbia to became an 'escape goat' for the things done by other ethnic groups.
(Costel Petrea, Timisoara, 1 January 2010 19:35)
To the people who marked my previous comment as "negative":
if you are Serbs, then know that a real friend, as we Romanians consider ourselves as being towards you, will always speak openly; and you should be wise enough to accept advice and even criticism from your friends, because it has nothing malicious in it. Serbian people are going through hard times today, and need all the friends it can gather; especially those who are friends in their hearts, where the friendship lies, not only in their minds – a place for politics... Therefore don't be upset on my comment, because there is much more in it than meets the eye: if Romanians and Hungarians were able to re-conciliate (following the example of French and Germans) inasmuch that today there are 4 Magyar Ministers out of 15 in the Romanian Govt., there is nothing to prevent same reconciliation between Serbs and Hungarians, in Voivodina. Rest assured, those few hot-minded Magyars will not be able to do much damage, as they weren’t able to do much in Transilvania, as long as Serb radical politicians are kept under control, as Romanians did with our extremists. But these requires all the energy and wisdom of Serbians, politicians and common people alike, to make the agreements to work in real life and also to join EU on the fast track – because in EU the borders will be nothing more than symbols. And in EU you have friends already, as you had previously when in need - remember June 1913?
Costel Petrea, Timisoara
(Costel Petrea, Timisoara, 2 January 2010 14:54)
Good news.
We, in Romania, are looking forward to see that situation of Romanians living in Voivodina will improve. There are churches waiting to be build, schools to be supported - nothing more than Serbs in Romania have already. Also, Romanians in Voivodina are (and will continue to be) loyal citizens of the Serbian state, no matter they call themselves Romanians or Vlachs; not to mentiona that improving their chances to conserve their ethnic identity will make a good gesture from Belgrade's part, given Bucharest position over Kosovo issue... So far, as Romanian media reported from time to time, many promises made by Belgrade to Bucharest remained just on paper, something which is somehow understandable, given the Kosovo debacle. But it would be unfair towards one or more minorities in Serbia to became an 'escape goat' for the things done by other ethnic groups.
(Costel Petrea, Timisoara, 1 January 2010 19:35)
they say they want to display croatian flags they could display it in croatia and bosnia not in serbia and serbs are 75% of the province, so whats the point.
(tom, 2 January 2010 01:27)
Good news.
We, in Romania, are looking forward to see that situation of Romanians living in Voivodina will improve. There are churches waiting to be build, schools to be supported - nothing more than Serbs in Romania have already. Also, Romanians in Voivodina are (and will continue to be) loyal citizens of the Serbian state, no matter they call themselves Romanians or Vlachs; not to mentiona that improving their chances to conserve their ethnic identity will make a good gesture from Belgrade's part, given Bucharest position over Kosovo issue... So far, as Romanian media reported from time to time, many promises made by Belgrade to Bucharest remained just on paper, something which is somehow understandable, given the Kosovo debacle. But it would be unfair towards one or more minorities in Serbia to became an 'escape goat' for the things done by other ethnic groups.
(Costel Petrea, Timisoara, 1 January 2010 19:35)
they say they want to display croatian flags they could display it in croatia and bosnia not in serbia and serbs are 75% of the province, so whats the point.
(tom, 2 January 2010 01:27)
To the people who marked my previous comment as "negative":
if you are Serbs, then know that a real friend, as we Romanians consider ourselves as being towards you, will always speak openly; and you should be wise enough to accept advice and even criticism from your friends, because it has nothing malicious in it. Serbian people are going through hard times today, and need all the friends it can gather; especially those who are friends in their hearts, where the friendship lies, not only in their minds – a place for politics... Therefore don't be upset on my comment, because there is much more in it than meets the eye: if Romanians and Hungarians were able to re-conciliate (following the example of French and Germans) inasmuch that today there are 4 Magyar Ministers out of 15 in the Romanian Govt., there is nothing to prevent same reconciliation between Serbs and Hungarians, in Voivodina. Rest assured, those few hot-minded Magyars will not be able to do much damage, as they weren’t able to do much in Transilvania, as long as Serb radical politicians are kept under control, as Romanians did with our extremists. But these requires all the energy and wisdom of Serbians, politicians and common people alike, to make the agreements to work in real life and also to join EU on the fast track – because in EU the borders will be nothing more than symbols. And in EU you have friends already, as you had previously when in need - remember June 1913?
Costel Petrea, Timisoara
(Costel Petrea, Timisoara, 2 January 2010 14:54)