"(The agreement) will lead to the improvement of the position of the national minorities on either side of the border and the speedier achievement of elements of cultural autonomy," the head of the Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina (DSHV), Petar Kuntic, told Hina.
Kuntic added that the ratification of the agreement might also help "defuse the tension between the two countries caused by the support by the Serbian government of the recent gathering of members of the (World War Two pro-Nazi) Chetnik Movement in Ravna Gora."
The chairman of the Croat National Council in Serbia and Montenegro, Josip Pekanovic, said he hoped that the Croats would be finally able to exercise all of their rights as an ethnic minority, primarily the right to information via the regional Novi Sad Television network.
The agreement is expected to settle many outstanding issues in areas of vital importance to the Croat community in Serbia, such as education, information and the use of the mother tongue.
Article 1 of the agreement says that members of the minorities must be guaranteed the right to express, preserve and develop their national, cultural, linguistic and religious identity and the right to education and information in their own native language.
The agreement on the protection of rights of the Serb and Montenegrin minorities in Croatia and the Croat minority in Serbia and Montenegro was signed by the governments of the two countries in Belgrade on November 15, 2004.