LSV Amendment Adopted: Bosnian Language in the Serbian Parliament

BELGRADE, (Patria) - The Serbian Parliament adopted an amendment to the proposed changes to the Law on the Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities, proposed by LSV (League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina) MPs.

The adopted amendment to the Law stipulates that every MP in the Serbian Parliament will be able to speak in their mother tongue. Therefore, MPs of the Bosniak national minority in the Serbian Parliament have the right to address the assembly in the Bosnian language.

This amendment provides for the expansion of the right of MPs to address the assembly in their mother tongue to those belonging to smaller national minorities.

The amendment refers to Article 10 of the Law on the Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities, which stipulates that an MP who is a member of a national minority whose number in the total population of the Republic of Serbia reaches two percent has the right to address the National Assembly in their mother tongue.

LSV MPs pointed out that without their adopted amendment, the proposed law would have prevented Slovaks, Croats, Rusyns, Roma, Bulgarians, Romanians, Vlachs, or Macedonians from addressing the National Assembly in their mother tongue.

The adopted amendment by LSV MPs extends the right of MPs to address the assembly in their mother tongue to all those belonging to a national minority that has formed a National Council.

In this way, smaller national minorities will be fully affirmed, not just those with a larger share in the total population of the Republic of Serbia.