"We would like to make the Croatian public more sensitive to problems of Croatian communities in neighbouring countries," the Foundation's chairwoman, Katarina Fucek, said at the start of the event.
By helping them to preserve their mother tongue, we strengthen their ties with Croatia, she added.
Representatives of Burgenland Croats and other Croats in Austria, as well as of the Croatian minority in Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, spoke about the problems they were facing in the exercise of their rights.