Office for Croats Outside the Republic of Croatia Opens Competition for Croatian Minority Programs

The Central State Office for Croats Outside Croatia on Friday invited associations, institutions, and organizations of the Croatian minority to submit their programs and projects in order to receive financial support for this year. Applications can be submitted over the next month, until April 16, and the competition with the relevant forms has been published on the Office’s website.

Programs and projects for the preservation of the Croatian language, cultural heritage, culture, education, science, programs for the development of minority media, and the activities of minority institutions are areas in which associations, institutions, and organizations of the Croatian minority community abroad can compete for support from the Croatian state.

>>>For more than one hundred projects of Croats outside the Republic of Croatia, two million kuna has been approved

Members of the Croatian national minority live in 12 European countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Italy, Kosovo, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Serbia.

The smallest number, 350, live in Kosovo, while the largest number is in Serbia (60,000), Austria, and Hungary (50,000 each), and in Slovenia, where between 35,000 and 55,000 live.

>>>For programs of cultural autonomy of national minorities, 32.4 million kuna has been allocated

According to available data, the Croatian state allocated 4.5 million kuna to these minority communities, or their programs, through the competition last year, and three million the year before.

Programs of associations, institutions, and organizations dependent on any political orientation or party will not be financed, and applications from those associations, institutions, and organizations that are found to have not fulfilled their obligations from previous contracts will also not be considered.