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Zagreb - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Friday that the Croatian national legislature would continue giving its contribution to all the initiatives aimed at improving the status of ethnic minorities.
Ethnic minorities are also a bridge towards other countries and can draw us closer to each other, said Jandroković on the final day of a two-day international conference on the 20 years of the Constitutional Law on the Rights of Ethnic Minorities.
"We highly appreciate the constructive and great contribution made by ethnic minorities to the contemporary state and nation-building process in Croatia. We are therefore permanently committed to the comprehensive protection and development of their rights and to the promotion of inter-ethnic tolerance," said Jandroković.
These are high-priority topics for the political stakeholders, he added.
In this fast-changing world exposed to growing populism, radicalisation and social polarisation we deem it an important prerequisite for the stability, democratisation and prosperity of the society, the parliament speaker said.
The adoption of the Constitutional Law on the Rights of Ethnic Minorities paved the way for Croatia's admission to the European Union. It also had an impact on the position of Croatia in the world and played an important role in the integration of ethnic minorities in Croatian society, Deputy Prime Minister Anja Šimpraga of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) said at the conference.
This model has facilitated stronger participation of representatives of ethnic minorities in the executive authorities at all levels, starting from the local to the state level.
Šimpraga said that the goals of a multicultural society are sustainable provided that the majority people accepts ethnic minorities as a wealth and does not treat them as a threat.
The chairman of the government's Council for Ethnic Minorities, Aleksandar Tolnauer said that the council would focus on the recognition of vested rights.
Sabor Deputy Speaker Furio Radin, who is the parliament's deputy of ethnic Italians, called for the consistent implementation of the Constitutional Law, notably the segments regulating education and governance in the languages of ethnic minorities.