This is the first of four regional seminars on this topic. The other three seminars will be held in Osijek, Split and Zagreb.
The one-day event in Rijeka pooled some 40 representatives of minorities from Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Istria and Lika-Senj counties. Also participating in the seminar are the head of the Croatian Government's Office for National Minorities, Milena Klajner, Deputy Chief of the OSCE Mission in Croatia Robert Becker, the head of the National Minority Council, Aleksandar Tolnauer, and parliamentary deputy Furio Radin.
The seminar will focus on problems that national minorities are faced with.
At the beginning of the seminar, Radin said that the turnout at elections for minority councils was very poor. Radin said that the reason for that was "an undefined electoral procedure". In order to avoid such a poor turnout, the parliamentary committee on national minorities will send to parliament a bill on the election of national minority councils, Radin said.
Today's seminar was organised by the Government's Office for National Minorities in cooperation the Council for National Minorities and with the financial assistance of the OSCE Mission in Croatia.