ZAGREB, November 16, 2018 – Italy is satisfied with the status of the Italian minority in Croatia, while the Croatian minority in Italy still needs help in preserving its identity, Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and his Italian counterpart Maria Elisabeta Alberti Casellati said in Rome on Thursday while discussing minority protections, the Croatian Parliament said in a press release.
Meeting with Casellati, Jandroković began a visit to Italy. Croatia wants to strengthen parliamentary cooperation with its western neighbour.
The two speakers also talked about improving the status of the Croatian minority in Italy, in the Molise and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions, and the need for further support from the two countries so the minority can nurture its cultural and language identity.
Casellati said she was satisfied with the Italian minority’s status in Croatia, adding that the minorities were a bridge between the two countries.
She and Jandroković also talked about the need to advance the European migrant policy and about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jandroković voiced concern about the situation after last month’s general elections in BiH and the status of Bosnian Croats.
Jandroković on Thursday visited the Croatian church of St Jerome and the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome, a Catholic college, church and a society in the city of Rome intended for the schooling of Croatian clerics.
After meeting rector Bože Radoš and Croatian priests, Jandroković said that the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome had a great spiritual and cultural meaning for the entire Croatian people and that through the history, the institution witnessed the connection between Croats and the Holy Father, the Vatican and the Catholic faith, the parliament’s public relations office said in a press release.
Radoš briefed Jandroković of the activities of the Croat community in Rome and the activities of the college which is currently the home to 2 priests studying at various pontifical universities.
For more on Croatia’s relations with Italy, click here.
