Coalition MPs put to parliament on Friday a proposal for a declaration on national communities from former Yugoslav republics living in Slovenia, which could help secure an institutional framework for the rights of these communities which do not have the status of minorities.

Social Democrat (SD) MP Miran Potrc, who is the initiator of the declaration on the policy on the Albanian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Macedonian and Serbian communities in Slovenia, expects it could be debated in parliament in January.

While regretting the failure of the opposition parties to back the initiative, Potrc still expects the colleagues from the opposition will adopt "a reasonable stance" once the debate gets underway.

The declaration proposal could pave the way for an institutional approach to securing the collective rights of the mentioned communities, which do not share the rights enjoyed for instance by the Italian and Hungarian minority.

The proposal is written in a very open fashion, with the only concrete novelty for now being the formation of a special advisory council.

"We decided for the declaration on the basis of a number of initiatives, which were more or less explicit," Potrc said.

He mentioned international institutions, especially the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, but also domestic ones, including the Human Rights Ombudsman.

Potrc explained that the idea was to demonstrate interest to resolve not only individual but also collective rights of these communities, which are not settled "in any way whatsoever".

He does not expect that things will change over night, but "the start of an organised debate on some issues that are better off resolved in an organised and progressive way, preventing the accumulation of discontent".

Daily Dnevnik reported on the issue today, explaining that members of communities of former Yugoslav republics established the Association of Culture Societies in 2003.

The idea of a "special advisory council" was put forward by President Danilo Tuerk in an interview last year. Warnings have also been issued about the status of the mentioned communities by the CoE.

Human Rights Ombudsman dr. Zdenka Cebasek - Travnik sees the declaration as a step forward in taking into account the calls by her office to address the collective rights of minorities which are not directly mentioned in the Constitution but deserve to be acknowledged by the state on account of their size.

In the population census held in 2002 around 11% declared themselves members of nations from the former Yugoslavia other than Slovenia.