The workshop was held in the Great Hall of Brod-Posavina County and was attended by 5 members of the Council of Roma and 7 members of the Council of the Serbian minority.

Prof. Lauc explained, during the presentation, the importance of local and regional government in the territory of the Republic of Croatia and the significance and influence of local government in the territory of the EU.

He also spoke about the existence of the European Charter of Local Self-Government ratified by Republic of Croatia, by which RoC committed itself to respect and apply the provisions of the Charter. For the local and regional governments to function and carry out all the tasks within its scope, it is necessary to implement decentralization, which is currently not the case in Croatia. Prof. Lauc stressed out that the Republic of Croatia is in the second place of most severely centralized EU countries. In his speech, he emphasized that local government has to strengthen harmony and communication between citizens living in the area, and institutions. He noted the importance of the advisory bodies (the Councils of National Minorities included) that exist in the local and regional self-government in the territory of the Republic of Croatia but whose opinions are usually not appreciated and not even asked for. Unlike the situation in Croatia, in EU countries opinions of advisory bodies are sought and taken into account. At EU level there is a Committee of the Regions, which has a special voice in the decision-making of local and regional importance in the area of ​​EU countries.

He also referred to the respect of human rights in all democratic countries in the world and mentioned that Croatia is one of the few countries that tied the right to local self-government as one of human rights.

Workshop for Minority Council of Brod – Posavina County was organized as part of the IPA 2012 "Legal inclusion and sustainable integration of Roma in Croatia" implemented by the IPC in partnership with the association HILS from Osijek, Brod – Posavina County and the Network of Roma NGOs in Croatia and co-financed by the Office for Cooperation with CSOs.