Minority rights

The Greek Foreign Ministry released an announcement on the demolition of properties belonging to members of the Greek National Minority in Dhermi, Himara at Northern Epirus of Albania.

The protection of minorities is an important value for the EU, but the European Commission does not have a general legal competence in relation to minorities

Instead, it is under the competence of EU member states to deliver decisions on minorities, Tove Ernst from the European Commission's press office said on Tuesday, according to Tanjug.

Serbia has protested after Vukovar town council on Monday said that signs in Cyrillic, the script of the Serbian minority in Croatia, will no longer be displayed on town institutions, squares and streets.

The receipt of any official note in Cyrillic in Vukovar will also now require a special request and payment of a fee of three euros.

The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs late on Monday sent the strongest protest to Croatia over the decision of the town of Vukovar to change its statute.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu will participate, in Cluj, on Thursday, in the international conference devoted to marking 20 years since the adoption by the Council of Europe and the signing and ratification by Romania of the framework convention for the protection of national minorities, informs a press release remitted to AGERPRES.

"We want to continue to represent the interests of our community, meaning increased rights in education, justice and local administration," said Kelemen Hunor, who was reelected as president of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, UDMR at the weekend.

BELGRADE - Roma are still the most endangered minority group in Serbia and the results of efforts aimed at improving their position have not removed the key obstacles to their socio-economic integration, says Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic.

BELGRADE - The drafting of the action plan on realisation of national minority rights, as one of the important points in the accession talks with the EU, has began on Tuesday at the meeting of the working group in the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade.

BELGRADE - Serbia welcomes the UN Human Rights Committee's report calling on Croatia to ensure that national minorities can use their own language and script, especially Cyrillic in Vukovar, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Friday.

BELGRADE - The caucus of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak (SDA) - Party of Democratic Action (PDD) notified Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic and the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality that it will not participate in the work of the committee because it is not working in the interest of national minorities.