The Qualification Agency and the Joint Council of Municipalities Vukovar signed a cooperation agreement yesterday at the Government of Serbia; Prime Minister Prof. Dr. Đuro Macut said that with this agreement, Serbia showed that it looked after and continuously cared for the needs of youth living in the diaspora and wishing to study in their home country.

The agreement was signed by the Director of the Qualification Agency, Časlav Mitrović, and the President of the Joint Council Vukovar, Dejan Drakulić. Macut stated it was a great pleasure to attend the signing of such a document, which represented a deep symbolism of the sincere desire of the Serbian Government and the need to facilitate the communication of young people, pupils and future students with their home country in order to exercise more easily their rights in Serbia. He also thanked the St. Petka Foundation and Bishop Heruvim of Osijek-Polje and Baranja, who nurtured the tradition and looked after Serbs in the diaspora.

Mitrović said that that Agency, within its jurisdiction, recognized all school diplomas and that this agreement allowed them to have better communication with Vukovar Council Community for faster exercise of rights by compatriots living in Croatia. Drakulić stated that, after a long period, this agreement allowed all students who attend classes in the Serbian language in the area of operation of the Joint Council of Municipalities Vukovar, to exercise their rights and enroll in a university in Serbia faster and easier. ‘In the area of operation of the Joint Council Vukovar, we have 1,460 students who attend classes in the Serbian language, Cyrillic script in primary school, and about 400 in secondary schools,’ he said. According to their data, of those who apply for scholarships, about 100 students from this region are currently studying in Serbia and about 140 are studying in Croatia.

The Chairperson of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Dragan Stanojević, received representatives of the Federation of Young Serbs of Europe, Nemanja Dimitrijević and Nikola Korica, at the House of the National Assembly. At the beginning of the meeting, the guests presented the draft strategy on the diaspora, which had been created as a product of research conducted to identify the key challenges, needs and priorities of diaspora Serbs. On this occasion, Nemanja Dimitrijević noted that around 200 respondents living in 10 different countries, of different ages, had participated in strategy development, and that 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 traditions.

The Chairperson of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region expressed his satisfaction that, according to him, there were young people in the diaspora who wanted to fight for the protection of Serbian culture, traditions and interests, and that he would do everything within his powers to contribute to that fight, both personally and as the Committee Chairperson. He stressed the importance of developing the draft strategy on the diaspora and proposed holding of a Committee session in the coming period where representatives of the Federation of Young Serbs of Europe would present the text to the members of the Committee. There, in cooperation with the Committee members, the next steps would be planned so that the document would be given an official form and its implementation could begin as soon as possible.

Source: Radio Television of Serbia – Tanjug – PARLAMENT.RS

Photo: Radio Television of Serbia