Today, in the National Assembly, the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Branko Ružić, and President of the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), Vladimir Dimitrijević, signed an agreement on the specification setting forth in detail the total planned costs for conducting elections for national minority councils which are to be held this year. On that occasion, Minister Ružić said that this is the beginning of preparations for the elections, which will be announced in August, and held in November this year at the latest, and that the Ministry will conduct these elections together with RIK. After the signing of the Agreement, Minister Ružić and MP Ljibuška Lakatoš held a meeting with deputies and representatives of national minority councils on the novelties in relation to the Special Electoral Roll proposed in the Law on National Minority Councils. “In order to make these elections even more transparent and efficient, we have created a new application for the Special Electoral Roll, which will be released for these elections,” the Minister said. He reminded representatives of national minority councils that enrollment in the Special Electoral Roll is voluntary and that it is important to provide timely information to citizens that it is possible to enroll, as well as to those who are enrolled that they should check their data. Given that the agenda of the extraordinary session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia contains three laws in the field of minority policies, the Minister stated that they will significantly improve the conditions for the realization of minority rights, and provide for voluntary registration of ethnicity, writing toponyms in minority languages in certain communities, addressing minority representatives in their own language in the Assembly, and more transparent and efficient work by national councils.