Minister Branko Ružić and representatives of 74 projects signed today contracts on award of funds from the Budget Fund for National Minorities, which is this year 12 times higher than the last year and amounts to RSD 21.8 million. Funds can be used only to increase provision of information in minority languages, which was a recommendation of the Government’s Council for National Minorities, which, in addition to representatives of government bodies, also includes representatives of national councils of national minorities. “This is the second year that the Ministry allocates funds from this Budget Fund, after it was inactive for 15 years”, said Mr. Ružić and noted that funds were much lower last year, namely RSD 1,800,000, and that he would try to increase that Fund next year. He said that employees in the Ministry called this year “a minority year” with a good reason, not only because of the Fund, but also because regular elections for national councils would be held, as well as because of the fact that the legislative framework had been significantly improved in the spring and the Special Electoral Roll had also been improved. “In all this, you, representatives of civil society, have an important role; you should, together with us, by launching initiatives, dialogue and implementing projects of public interest, help ensure that regulations we write and policies we make correspond to real needs of our citizens”, said Mr. Ružić. Representatives of projects thanked for a possibility to talk more about representatives of minorities in this manner, as wealth of our country.