09/03/2011 President
Strasbourg, 09.03.2011 – Over the years, the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina has built a successful multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society, said Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), speaking at the end of a visit to the Autonomous Province on 8 March 2011.
“I welcome the efforts of the institutions of Vojvodina aiming at promoting integration and supporting minority communities in the fields of education, culture, the use of minority languages and access to the media,” he added. “Of course a lot still remains to be done, especially in order to integrate fully the Roma community, but with strong comitment and concrete initiatives we can move forward,” the PACE President said.
He also praised Vojvodina’s success in implementing cross-border co-operation projects with regions in neighbouring countries. The best practice developed here should be replicated in other parts of Serbia as well as elsewhere in Europe, Mr Çavuşoğlu said.
In this context, he called upon the Sebian authorities to sign and ratify the Madrid Outline Convention on transfrontier co-operation between territorial communities and authorities. “The ratification of the Madrid Convention is not only necessary to complete Serbia’s outstanding post-accession comitments, it is also a concrete step towards enabling Serbian local authorities to develop concrete co-operation projects with their counterparts across the border. This helps to promote local and regional economic development, attract investors, create new jobs and strengthen ties between people with different cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds,” the President said.
During his official visit to Serbia, the President travelled to Novi Sad on 8 March 2011 to meet the Speaker of the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina Sandor Egeresi, the Chairman of the Executive Council Bojan Pajtic, as well as representatives of the National Minority Councils whose offices are located within the territory of the Autonomous Province.