The declaration was signed by Milorad Pupovac (SDSS) and Tomislav Žigmanov (Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina – DSHV), and the document will be confirmed by the bodies of both communities.
Since the countries are burdened by other relations, we considered it necessary to underscore our need to cooperate and to call on our countries to start cooperating on matters of our common interest, said MP Pupovac.
The declaration is the result of many years of cooperation and is an important step towards expanding institutional cooperation, said DSHV head Žigmanov.
I believe it will have an effect not only on the members of our community but also on the policies of interstate relations, he said.
The next step is to create a concrete programme for cooperation between institutions of the Croatian people in Serbia and institutions of the Serbian people in Croatia, which will touch on the issue of political relations, as well as of new forms of cooperation between the two sides.
“There is no doubt that the circumstances in Europe and the world have not favoured the cooperation between Croatia and Serbia, but there is also no doubt that the policies of Zagreb and Belgrade did not protect the area of cooperation, neither against internal relations nor against global influences,” Pupovac added.
During the conference on Serbia-Croatia relations, participants dealt with topics related to heroisation and political myths in Croatia and Serbia, and they also discussed EU subsidies for encouraging the rural development of Dalmatia.
The conference was attended by scholars, representatives of the DSHV and the SDSS, as well as by other political representatives of Serbs from Croatia and Croats from Serbia and local officials.
The event was organised by the Association for History, Cooperation and Reconciliation from Golubić (Obrovac) and the Centre for History, Democracy and Reconciliation from Novi Sad.
