Montenegro distributes funding across minority communities
Montenegro’s Fund for the Protection and Realisation of Minority Rights allocated €1.69m for 221 projects last year, with ethnic Croats receiving €56,500, according to a report submitted to parliament.
The largest share went to multi-ethnic projects, which received €613,610, followed by the Bosniak community with €362,640 and the Serbian community with €318,290, CE Report quotes HINA.
The Roma community was allocated €155,960, Albanians €109,300, and the Muslim community €73,700.
Funding for Croatian minority projects increased by €20,300 compared with 2024, but the community remained at the bottom of the list by total allocation given that it is the smallest.
The fund supports NGOs and individuals working on minority rights and cultural preservation.
Montenegro law does not define specific minority nations, instead using broader criteria based on population size and cultural distinctiveness, while the Venice Commission considers minorities those making up less than 15% of the population.
According to the 2023 census, ethnic Croats account for 0.83% of Montenegro’s 623,633 residents; 41.1% declared themselves as Montenegrin, 32.9% as Serb, 9.45% as Bosniak, 4.97% as Albanian, 2% as Russian and 1.6% as Muslim.
